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HISTORY OF THE 
TOWN OF WELLESLEY 



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Deed from John vnd Sarah Magus 
(April 18, 1681) 



HISTORY OF THE 

TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

MASSACHUSETTS 



BY THE LATE 



HON. JOSEPH E. FISKE 



Edited and enlarged by Ellen Ware Fiske 




THE PILGRIM PRESS 
BOSTON CHICAGO 






Copyright 1917 
By ELLEN W. FISKE 



THE PILGRIM PRESS 
BOSTON 

/ 
SEP -6 1317 

78 043 



INTRODUCTION 

It is not the purpose of this book to record what has already 
been written up by other students of the town's affairs, and so 
it is best to refer to those who are interested to the following 
excellent histories which deal more or less with this locality: 

A comprehensive history of Dedham up to 1827 written by 
Erastus Worthington contains in the first sixty pages many things 
of interest to this part of the Dedham township. 

Rev. E. H. Chandler's excellent history of the Wellesley Church 
renders anything else on the subject a work of absolute superero- 
gation. 

George Kuhn Clarke of Needham, our local historian and com- 
piler since the death of Charles C. Greenwood of Needham, pub- 
lished a book of Epitaphs in 1897 and in 1912 followed with a 
most extended history of Needham. Mr. Clarke's epitaphs contain 
excellent and interesting descriptions of early families whose 
last resting places are found in the cemeteries of North Natick, 
Wellesley, Needham and Newton Lower Falls. 

Therefore the editor of this work feels that any similar descrip- 
tions of families and localities would only be doing over again 
work that has already been done. So she offers the slight history 
left by her father, with some amplifications on her part. 

This book was undertaken at the request of the Wellesley Club, 
by whose sanction and encouragement it has been carried on. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction v 

List of Illustrations ix 

Dates of Interest to the Town xi 

Settlement and Original Grants 3 

Separation from Needham and Origin of the Name 12 

Roads and Bridges 18 

Newton Lower Falls — Factories 23 

Railroads and Post Offices 26 

Churches 28 

Public Schools 31 

Private Schools 36 

Wellesley College 37 

Wellesley in the Wars 38 

Old Families 50 

The Town Farm 52 

Taverns — Old Houses 56 

Land Owners 62 

Items from Early Town Records 64 

Early Societies 67 

Genealogies of Some of the Older Residents of the Town 68 

Social Life at Wellesley 77 

Wellesley, 1881-1906 82 

Account of Division of the Town 84 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Deed from John and Sarah Magus Frontispiece 

OrpOSITE PAGE 

Old Grantville Station 26 

Rockland Street Bridge 26 

Third Meeting House 28 

The First Meeting House, Wellesley 28 

The Old Unitarian Church 30 

The Old Congregational Church, Wellesley Hills 30 

Wellesley Square before 1875 



Wellesley College. 



38 



Wellesley Hills Square, Looking East 56 

Wellesley Hills Square, Looking West 56 

Maugus Hill from Forest Street 64 

View from Maugus Hill 64 

The Hunnewell Gardens 72 



DATES OF INTEREST TO THE TOWN 

1636 Dedham settled. 

1659 Natick Dividend. 

1668 Dewin House built. 

1699 Hundreds grants. 

1701 Mill at Lower Falls. 

1711 Needham separated from Dedham— 33rd town in State to 

be incorporated. 

1728 First school house. 

1774 West Parish set off. 

1775 Three companies sent to Lexington. 
1778 West Parish incorporated. 

1781 Natick set off. 

1797 West Needham church settled a pastor. 

1797 Needham Leg set off to Natick. 

1834 Railroad to West Needham. 

1843 Cornwallis Day observed. 

1846 Newton Lower Falls Branch Railroad opened. 

1847 North Needham Parish— Moses Grant gives bell to Church- 

name becomes Grantville. 
1858 Fells School House built (then Pine Plains). 
1862 West Needham name changed to Wellesley. 
1874 Shaw School built. 

New North School Building erected. 

1881 Wellesley incorporated as a town. 
Catholic Church dedicated. 

1882 Woodlawn Cemetery incorporated. 

1883 It was voted to have town water. 

1884 Woodlawn Avenue lengthened. 
Elm Street accepted by the town. 
Florence Avenue accepted by the town. 
Unitarian Church built. 

1885 First report of Water Board. 

1886 Waban Street accepted. 

Front Street and Linden Street connected. 

Freshet carried away foot bridge at Newton Lower Falls. 

1887 Concrete sidewalks built. 
Watering cart used. 

May 21, Mr. Hunnewell deeded Town Hall and Library to the 

town. 
Fire Department organized. 

1888 Kingsbury Street accepted. 
Park Commissioners appointed. 

1889 Board of Health established as separate from Board of Select- 

men. 
Wellesley Club organized. 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

1890 Wellesley Hills Woman's Club organized. 

1891 Chestnut Street and Cliff Road accepted. 
Park Street accepted. 

Croton Street accepted. 

1892 Abbott Street accepted. 
Everett Street accepted. 
Electric street lighting introduced. 
Maugus Club organized. 

Fiske School built. 

1893 Franchise granted to Natick and Cochituate Street Railway. 
Old Hunnewell school house sold. 

Superintendent of Schools appointed. 
Maugus Avenue accepted. 
"Watchmen" appointed. 

1894 New High School Building on Washington Street. 
Fire Alarm System introduced. 

Wellesley Telephone Exchange established at Wellesley 

Hills. 
St. Andrew's Chapel built. 

1895 Washington Elm at Newton Lower Falls taken down. 
Chief of Police appointed. 

1896 Natick and Cochituate Street Railway open for traffic. 
"Watchmen" made police officers. 

1897 Prescott Street accepted; Hillside Road accepted, 
dishing Street accepted; Cliff Road accepted. 
Hawthorne Street accepted; Cypress Street accepted. 

1898 Day officers on police staff. 
"Our Town" first published. 

1899 Friendly Aid organized. 

1900 Washington Street widened and rebuilt. 
Central Street widened and rebuilt. 

Three scholarships given to the town by Wellesley College. 
Board of Health becomes a separate department. 
Library Trustees a separate board. 

1901 Police Signal Department established. 

1901 New building for Wellesley Hills Congregational Church 

erected. 
Board of Water and Municipal Light Commissioners created. 

1902 Water and Electric Light Commissioners consolidated. 

1903 Boston and Worcester Street Railway opened. 
Police Signal system established. 

Hose 3 built. 

Block System introduced. 

Town Council without salary. 

1904 Wellesley National Bank established. 

1905 Brook Street accepted. 

Name of Chestnut Street changed to Cliff Road. 
Wellesley Village Improvement Society organized. 
"Townsman" first published. 



DATES OF INTEREST 

Hospital Deed of Trust declared and Trustees appointed. 

1906 Fairbanks Avenue accepted. 

Hills and Falls Village Improvement Society organized. 

1907 New High School built on Kingsbury Street. 
Cliff Road extended to Weston line. 
Bradford Road accepted. 

Name of Blossom Street changed back to Weston Road. 
Wellesley Firemen's Relief Association organized. 

1908 Elm Park Hotel and grounds taken over by the town, through 

private subscriptions and town appropriation. 
All night schedule for street lights. 

1909 Hampton Street accepted. 
Appropriation Committee appointed. 

Foot bridge at Newton Lower Falls rebuilt. 

1910 Town Farm discontinued as such and leased to the Wellesley 

Country Club. 
Pine Street accepted. 
Hundreds Road accepted. 
Fire whistle instituted. 

1911 Alice Phillips Union school built on Seaward Road. 
Arlington Road accepted. 

Franklin Road accepted. 

Fletcher Road accepted. 

Advisory Committee appointed and Appropriation Committee 

discontinued. 
Tablet to Revolutionary soldiers dedicated on College grounds. 
Two additional scholarships given to the town by Wellesley 

College. 
Teachers' pension fund accepted by the town. 
Maple Place changed to Seaward Road. 
Tablet dedicated to Revolutionary Soldiers. 

1912 New set of town by-laws accepted by the town. 
Expert accountant appointed. 

Art commissioners chosen. 

1913 Library Exchange at Wellesley Hills established. 
Building laws adopted. 

Biver Bidge Boad accepted. 
Prospect Street accepted. 
Livermore Boad extension accepted. 
Solon Street accepted. 
Middlesex Street accepted. 

1914 Bancroft Boad accepted. 
Morton Street accepted. 
Leighton Boad accepted. 

Main Building Wellesley College burned. 

1915 Population 6439. 

Voted to enter Metropolitan Sewerage System. 

1916 St. Paul's Mission built church in Wellesley. 

Wellesley Congregational Church burned. 

xiii 



HISTORY OF THE 
TOWN OF WELLESLEY 



HISTORY OF THE 
TOWN OF WELLESLEY 



SETTLEMENT AND ORIGINAL GRANTS 

The history of the town of Wellesley is necessarily brief as 
the town was incorporated as late as April 6, 1881. It was, until 
that time, a part of the town of Needham (incorporated in 1711), 
and previous to that its territory was included within the limits 
of Dedham. 

In 1635 the general court then sitting at Newtowne (now 
Cambridge) granted a tract of land south of the Charles River 
to twelve men. In 1636 nineteen men, including the' original 
twelve, petitioned the general court then at Boston for all the 
land south of the Charles River and above the falls and a tract 
five miles square north of the Charles. This land includes what 
is now Dedham, Wrentham, Needham, Wellesley, Walpole, Bel- 
lingham, Franklin, Dover, Natick and a part of Sherborn. 

On the 28th of September, 1638, several men were sent out 
from Dedham to "discover the river" above the town. They re- 
turned on the 10th of October, having gone perhaps ten miles along 
its course. 

In 1643 Major Eleazer Lusher and Lieutenant Daniel Fisher 
laid out the tract of land which includes Needham, Natick, Welles- 
ley and a portion of Sherborn. 

The northern bounds of the plantation were fixed by order 
of the general court in May 1639, when the southern line of 
Watertown was stated to run to "Partition Point" and so upon 
the same point still till it be from their meeting house eight 
miles, and this line was set up as the bounds between Dedham and 
Watertown until Dedham shall have taken in the five miles square 
granted them, "so as it shall not run within two miles of Coij- 
chawicke Ponds." The line was run by Mr. Oliver. Watertown 
had accepted against Dedham's claim to land on the north two 
years before, and not until May, 1651, was the matter settled be- 
tween the two towns, when a committee of both towns met and 
agreed upon the line, "beginning at Partition Point and so to 
run straight west, something inclining toward the south." 

This line runs West 13 South, and is in length 993 rods be- 
tween Weston, which was set off from Watertown, January 1, 1712. 

This line became the northern line of Needham when that pre- 
cinct was set off from Dedham, November 5, 1711, and the north 
line of Wellesley when that town was set off from Needham, 
April 6, 1881. 

3 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

The land was owned by the Indians and later purchased by the 
whites, but "the Pilgrims and Puritans mostly looked on the In- 
dians as heathen whose inheritance God meant to give to his peo- 
ple as of old he had dealt with Israel and their heathen"; and 
therefore they agreed that their moral right was practically with- 
out question. 

But there came a time when the inhabitants of Dedham, 
dreading interference with their title to the lands occupied by 
them, sought in common with the people of other plantations at 
this time, to ratify their title so far as possible. They obtained 
the deeds now preserved in the town archives of Dedham. 

In April, 1680, the town of Dedham agreed to give to William 
Nehoiden ten pounds in money, forty shillings in Indian corn, 
forty acres of land for territory seven miles long from east to west 
on the north side of the Charles river and five miles wide. In the 
same year the town of Dedham gave the sachem Magos three 
pounds in Indian corn and five in money for his lands around 
Magos' hill. Thus were the Indian titles to Natick and Needham 
extinguished. (Dedham Town Records.) 

Nehoiden's grant was chiefly connected with the Needham land 
— Na-ha-tan. Magos, as written by him, though pronounced Mau- 
gus, deeded what is substantially Wellesley to the town of Dedham. 
He was one of John Eliot's "Natick Indians." 

Maugus' habitation is generally supposed to have been near 
the spring at the junction of Brookside Road and Oakland Street. 
He probably had other wigwams, one at Maugus Hill and another 
in Natick, as it was the custom of the Indians to move about accord- 
ing to the season. His father was Jacob, whom we find signing a 
deed in 1639. He probably was one of the Concord Indians. His 
brother Simon went to Maine. Maugus had no sons, but his daugh- 
ter Catherine married William Tray. Maugus was taken to Deer 
Island with other Natick Indians in 1676, and we hear of him 
as joining Captain Samuel Hunting's Company to aid Seabury. He 
was one of the few Indians who could write his name, and was 
one of four teachers who taught the Natick Indians, receiving ten 
pounds per annum. His confession of faith is given in John Eliot's 
Fears of Repentance, published in 1652. His wife's Indian name 
is said to have been Waukeena, though her Christian name after 
baptism was Sarah. 

The deeds are as follows: one is dated April 14, 1680, from 
William Nahatan (signature written bahaton), Alias Quaanan, his 
brothers Peter Natoogus and Benjamin Nahaton and their sisters 
Tahheesaish Nahuton and Hanna Nahaton (signature Nahuton) 
Alias lam Mew Wosh, living in Punkapogg, near Blue Hill, "con- 
veys to Dedham all their interest in a tract of land as it lyeth 
towards the northerly side of the bounds of Dedham by the Great 
Falls in the Charles River and bounded upon the Charles River 
towards the East and upon said River up stream as the river lyeth 
and so continuing abutting upon said river until it came to the 
brook called Natick Saw Mill Brook and abutteth upon said brook 

4 



SETTLEMENT AND ORIGINAL GRANTS 

toward the west, and so with a varying line near the southerly side 
of the herd yards and from thence near the foot of Maugus Hill on 
the southerly side and from thence the same course until the line 
come to that brook called Rosemary Meadow Brook and the said 
Brook to the Charles Biver is the rest of the bound." 

The other dated April 18, 1681, from John Magus and Sarah 
Magus, Indians inhabiting Natick, conveys to the town the whole 
parcel of land in Dedham bounded upon Watertown bounds in part 
and Natick in part toward the north upon Natick, bounds towards 
the west and southwest upon the Charles Biver toward the south 
and upon the lands that William Nahayton sold to Dedham towards 
the southeast and upon the Charles Biver toward the northeast. 
(Dedham Town Becords.) (There was doubt as to whether Nehoi- 
den did not own all the land in this vicinity, but as Maugus laid 
claim to this part, his claim was recognized.) 

The line between Maugus and Nahaton runs about 200 rods dis- 
tant northeast from the boundary lines between Needham and 
Wellesley. Maugus' land included the herd yard which (as near as 
can be made out) was located between Linden and Seaver Streets 
on both sides of the brook which flows into Dewing brook not far 
from the Edwin Fuller place. Mr. Charles Kingsbury occupied a 
part of an ancient homestead (now belonging to E. H. Fay) and this 
house probably stands on the herd yard land. 

There have been many Indian relics picked up on the old Bice 
farm at Lower Falls, and there are evidences that the glen north of 
Glen Boad, through which the brook from Indian Spring flows to the 
river, was a favorite camping place. Here indeed may have been 
the site of the Indian village called Coowate, a name derived per- 
haps from words which would signify a sleeping place, or possibly, 
though not so likely, from the prevalence of pine trees at this bend 
of the river. The place was so called at the time of King Philip's 
War. 

Natick Saw Mill Brook was the brook which connects Lake 
Waban with the Charles Biver, running under Washington Street 
just east of the Durant residence. John Eliot built a saw mill there 
in the early settlement of the Indians in that part of Dedham which 
was called by the Indian name of Natick (a place of hills). At the 
request of Eliot, the missionary to the Indians, Dedham granted in 
1651, two thousand acres of land for the Indian village. The Indians 
had been gathered together at Nonantum from various other places, 
but it was deemed advisable to take them further inland away 
from the whites. Eliot preached his first sermon to the Indians, 
October 28, 1646, at Nonantum in Waban's wigwam. 

Waban was originally a Concord Indian, and died in 1674, aged 
seventy years. His widow, Tansunsquaw, the eldest daughter of the 
Concord sachem, Tahattawan, and his son Thomas were living in 
Natick in 1684. Thomas' Indian name was Weegrammomenet. 
Waban inherited his property through his wife's family. A war- 
rant issued by him is interesting for its quaint English: 

5 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

"You, you big constable; quick you catchem Jeremiah Off scow ; 
strong you holdem, safe you bringum afore me, Thomas Waban, 

Justice peace." 

The story is told that Waban's wife said that it was hard work 
now that her husband had become a gentleman to meet the require- 
ments, so she went to Mrs. William Deming's to learn how to iron 
pleated shirts. 

The Indians were divided into four companies. Two of them 
being within our present precincts are worth noting: "1676. . . . 
Another company live near Natic adjoining the garrison house of 
Andrew Dewin and his sons, who desire their neighborhood and are 
under his protection; the number of these be about fifty souls, of 
whom 10 were men. A third company of them with Waban live 
near the falls of the Charles River, near to the house of Joseph 
Miller and not far from Capt. Prentice. The number of these be 
about sixty souls of whom 12 were men." 

Lake Waban, called at different times Saw Mill Pond — Cun- 
ningham's — Bullard's — received its present name in the early 60's. 
The Indian name of Charles River was Quinobequin, generally sup- 
posed to mean the river that turns upon itself. It was named for 
King Charles by John Smith in his trip along the coast in 1614. Cor- 
vate, meaning Great Falls, was an early name used in the vicinity. 
Cochituate, meaning Long Pond, and so called at one time, was 
variously Cochichawick, Cochitua, and Wachituate. 

In 1676 the Natick Indians were accused of burning an old 
barn in Dedham and were sent to Deer Island as punishment. It 
is questioned whether other Indians or even English hostile to the 
Praying Indians did not do this, and lay the crime at their door. 
These Praying Indians were established throughout the colony in 
about six communities. They and their friends were ridiculed by 
the other inhabitants and were so obnoxious to them that if they 
could be injured in any way it was done. About two hundred from 
Natick were hurried to Deer Island at an hour's notice. They em- 
barked at The Pines, probably opposite the Arsenal at Watertown, 
with what household goods they could take with them. Captain 
Prentice had charge of them and did all he could to aid them. The 
winter was very severe and they suffered many hardships. When 
they returned they found their houses burned and their household 
goods destroyed. Major Gookin had general oversight of all the 
Indians of the colony and when he died Captain Prentice was given 
the superintendence of affairs. 

The Natick records have the following list of officers elected in 
the first recorded town meeting: 

Selectmen James Speen 

Capt Thomas Waban 

Lt. John Wamsquam 
Tyth.ingm.en John Thomas Senr 
Peter Ephraim 

6 



SETTLEMENT AND ORIGINAL GRANTS 

George Takechap 
Samel Pegan 
Samel English 
Constable Saml Abraham 
Fence viewer James Wish 
Surveyors of Abraham Speen 
Highways Thos. Peegan 

Schoolmaster John Thomas Seni' 
Heywards Peter upbakatah Jun. 
Sam'H Bowman 
Jno. Speen 
Town Clerk Capt. Waban 

By John Leveritt's Order 

Among intentions of marriage are those of Abraham Speen and 
Baehel Waban April 20, 1737; Isaak and Elizabeth Peegan August 
6, 1738, forbidden by Patiames Tom August 7, 1738; Comacho and 
Sarah Ephraim January 13, 1741; Sarah Comacho Jr. and Jonas 
Tom May 16, 1793; Anthony Dego and Thankful Quacco, December 
11, 1755. Among the deaths are the following from the church 
records who were descendants of Waban: — 

Waban— Esther wid. of 1747-8 

capt., 1722 

w. of isaac, 1743 

Isaac, Jan. 15, 1745-6 

Jabez s. of Hezekiah Mar. — 1751 

Moses 1746 

Rachel wid. of Dec. 17, 1745 

Sarah w. of Thomas Jun. 1752 

Solomon s. of Hezekiah 1756 

Thorn (as) 1733 

Thomas 1752 

The whole management of the village was given over to the 
Indians, and they governed and controlled it for many years, but 
the tribe died out slowly but surely, and by 1826 was extinct. In 
1672 the government passed into the hands of the English. Daniel 
Takawumpbait was an Indian pastor in 1716, and on his death the 
church broke up and by 1729 there was an English and Indian 
church under Mr. Peabody. 

The earliest general grant of land within the present Wellesley 
precincts was in 1659 when the Dedham planters laid out a division 
of corn land called the Natick dividend and the grants were made 
at Natick Saw Mill Brook to Peter Woodward, John Aldis, Rev. John 
Allin, Thomas Metcalf, Theophilus Fray, Michael Metcalf, Andrew 
Dewin, Richard Wheeler, the church of Dedham, Natick School Farm 
of three hundred acres, this latter being now the B. P. Cheney estate. 
There were forty-seven grants practically all of them bordering upon 

7 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

Sawmill Pond, Natick Brook, Charles River and Natick. Almost all 
of this land was in the present precincts of Wellesley, Needham and 
Dover. 

The town record has the following: "Feb. 2, 1659, upon a ques- 
tion proposed by the committee that were deputed to lay out the 
land near Natick that is what is the town's intent in their former 
vote near about Natick wheresoever. The town for explanation 
therefore declare by their vote that they intend all the land that is 
fit for corn land first at the southeast side of the Charles River and 
near or adjoining thereto, and also on plain that lies near our Town 
containing about 100 acres more or less and also the remainder of 
that plain whereupon Natick Meeting House stands and also the 
lands between Natick Brook and the house and about that house and 
all about Maugus, his wigwam and so down towards the River there, 
that is so much as is fit for improvements for corn." i (Copied from 
writing book.) 

The next grant was in March, 1695, when the proprietors voted 
to lay out the lands within the town bounds on the northerly side 
of Sherburne to the lower falls, which lands are in Sherburne. In 
1699 thirty-four hundred acres were accordingly laid out and as- 
signed to those who could show their rights therein. (Vol. 5 Ded- 
ham Records. P. 249.) 

The assignments were as follows: 

DEDHAM GRANTS 

2-451-1. Granted vnto the Town of Dedham A farme of three 

hundred acres of upland medow and Swamp to be Wholy to 
the use and benifit of a Schoole in Dedham to be Improued 
for the maintinance thereof lying within our bounds 
towards Sudbery layed out and Return thereof made by 
Mr. Timothy Dwight Jonath Gay and John Smith the 
Commity Chosen and deputed thereunto as it lyeth Abut- 
ting upon a pond towards the South the wast land to- 
wards the west Watertown lyne towards the North the 
wast land towards the East 

2-475-2. Granted to the Church in Dedham and to their suc- 

cessor and Assignes forever fifty acres of land and to 
William Avery and to his Heires and Assignes forever 
fifty acres the whole being one hundred acres lying un- 
devided in the Devident of land layed out on the North- 
erly side of Sherborn Road bounded Abutting upon the 
Road leading from Sherborn to the lower falls in Charles 
River towards the South and upon the fifth lot towards 
the North upon a great Pond towards the west and upon 
a way left to the other lots towards the East 

2-471-1. Granted to Samvell Mors and to his Heyers and As- 
signes forever one thousand and four hundred acres of 
land as it lyeth in that devident agreed upon and layed 
8 



SETTLEMENT AND ORIGINAL GRANTS 

out on the Northerly side of Sherborn Rode leading to the 
falls the propriaty thereof being purchesed of severall of 
the propriators of this Town of Dedham as apper by 
Deeds under their hands to said Samvell Mors Abutting 
upon Mathew Rice in part and John Coller in part to- 
wards the North upon Natick towards the west and South 
upon the Schoole farme in part a Pond and a Brooke 
runing out of the same in part towards the East the whole 
of said tract of land be it more or less 1699 

2-473-5. Granted to John Smith and to his Heires and Assignes 

forever one hundred acres of land as it lyeth in that 
devident of land on the North side of Sherborn Roade 
abutting upon Watertown line towards the North and 
upon the land of said John Smith towards the South and 
upon marked trees marked two on the west and two on 
the East side of said lot on that side of the trees Next to 
said lot it being the second lot in number 

2-473-4. Granted to Eleazer Kingsbery and to his Heires and 

Assignes forever one hundred acres of land lying in that 
devident layed out on the North side of Sherborn Road 
Abutting upon Watertown line towards the North and 
upon lots in Natick devident towards the south and is 
bounded East and west by trees marked with three on 
that side next to this lot being numbered for a third lot 
in laying out 

2-473-6. Granted to John Huntting Sen and to his Heires and 

Assignes forever one hundred acres of land more or less 
as it lyeth in that Devident on the North side of Sher- 
born Road Abutting upon Watertown line towards the 
North and vpon Natick Devident towards the South and 
South East and upon Eleazer Kingshery towards the west 
and upon Capt Daniell Fisher towards the East the trees 
being marked with four on the East and west side of the 
same it being the fourth lot in number 

2-472-3. Granted to Capt Daniell Fisher and to his Heirs and 

Assignes forever four hundred acres of land as it lyeth 
in that devident of land on the north side of Sherborn 
Roade one hundred acres abutting upon Watertown line 
towards the North and upon Sherborn Road in part and 
John Parker in part towards the South and is bounded 
and marked East and west by trees being marked with 
the number eight on that side next to it being the eight 
lot: More two hundred acres of land in the same Devi- 
dent as it is bounded Abutting upon Watertown line to- 
wards the North and upon Sherborn Road towards the 
South: being the fifth and sixth lots and is bounded by 

9 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

trees marked six on the East side and with trees marked 
with five on the west side of said lots: More one hun- 
dred acres as it is bounded and Abutts upon the hundred 
acres drawn for the Church and for William Avery to- 
wards the South East being the fifth lot and is bounded 
by trees marked with five on the SouthEast side of said 
lot and with trees marked with five on the Northwest 
side of said lot and upon a Brooke in part and a Pond 
in part towards the Southwest and upon land left for a 
way towards the NorthEast 

Granted to William Bullard Capt John Fisher Georg 
Robinson Andrew Watkins Jeremiah Gay, Benjemin Fair- 
banks and to their heirs and Assignes foruver two hun- 
dred acres of land in that divident lying on the north- 
wardly side of Sherburn Boad to the lower falls comonly 
called Sherburn devident The first hundred acres being 
Numbred the Seventh lot bounded upon the boundery line 
between Nedham and Watertown towards the North upon 
the sixth lot drawn by Capt Fisher deceased towards 
the east upon the Shereburn Road toward the South upon 
the eight lot drawn by sd Fisher deceased towards the 
west. The second hundred acres of land lying in the same 
devident being the seventh lot in the drawing bounded 
upon the School land towards the west, upon the hundred 
drawn by Mills Woodcock Aldrig and Metcalfe towards 
the South — upon the hundred drawn by Benjemin Mills 
toward the North: the Intrest of the above said pro- 
prietors is as followeth Capt John Fisher nine acres and 
sixty rods William Bullard fifty acres Georg Bobinson 
ninty two acres and one half acre six acres and one quar- 
ter of these acres is upon the rights of Jonathan Gay 
deceased thirty nine acres and three quarters is upon the 
Rights of the heirs of Benjemin fairbanks Andrew Wad- 
kins six acres and one quarter upon the Bight of Edward 
Cook March 2d 1715-16 

2-475-1. Granted to Benjamin Mills and to his Hares and as- 

signes forever two hundred acres of land in the Devident 
on the north side of Sherborn Boad in two perciells one 
hundred acres bounded Abutting upon land granted to the 
school in Dedham towards the west and upon Watertown 
line towards the North and upon trees marked one to- 
wards the South and upon trees marked three : in part 
towards the East The other hundred acres of land more 
or less is bounded Abutting upon Watertown line towards 
the northwest and upon the land of John Parker in part 
and the land of Joseph Daniells in part towards the South 
East and upon trees marked nine towards the Southwest 
and northEast 

10 



SETTLEMENT AND ORIGINAL GRANTS 

2-474-9. Granted to Joseph Faierbanke Samvell Whitting Timo- 

thy Whitting & Jonathan Whitting to them their Heires 
and Assignes forever one hundred acres of land more or 
less on the North side of Sherborn Road bounded Abut- 
ting upon a Pond in part & a Brook towards the West 
& upon the land of Capt Daniell Fisher towards the South 
& upon trees marked four on one side and three on the 
other side towards the North & upon a Highway towards 
the East: each of them Interested in said hundred acres 
proportionable to their Interest in Cow Common Rights 
in Dedham 

2-476-3. Granted to Capt Daniell Fisher and to his Heires and 

Assignes forever two hundred acres of land more or less 
bounded Abutting upon Watertown line towards the 
North & upon the land of Joseph Daniells in part and 
the land of said Fisher in part towards the South & 
bounded by trees marked eleven on the one side and 
twelve on the other side towards the East and by trees 
marked ten on the one side and nine on the other side 
towards the west being the easterly bounds of the fifth 
lot in the drawing but the ninth in number and the trees 
abovesaid marked eleven on one side and twelve on the 
other is the westerly bounds of the first lot in drawing 
but ye twelveth in number 

2-472-2. Granted to John Baker Nathanell Bichards Jonathan 

Gay & Edward Deuotion to them and their Heyers and 
Assignes forever to each of them according to their In- 
terest in that devident of land layed out over Sherborn 
Boade towards Watertown two hundred acres more or 
less as it is bounded and Abutteth upon Watertown line 
towards the North upon Charls Biver towards the East 
and upon the way leading from Sherborn to the lower 
falls towards the South and upon the eleventh lote to- 
wards the west & northwest the trees marked eleven on 
one side and twelve on the other 

Sherburne Boad (now Washington Street) was originally the 
Indian trail, and called the Natick path, from Nonantum (Newton) 
to Sherburne or Dedham, (Sherburne then being the westerly part 
of Dedham). It was laid out from Boston to Sherburne in 1671. 

The fourteen hundred acres assigned to Samuel Morse was in 
that part of the present Natick then called "Needham Leg," and 
now Felchville.2 In 1701 the town of Dedham sold for fifty pounds 
its school farm to Jeremiah Gay, whose daughter Sibell married 
Ephraim Stevens of Holden, October 11, 1759, and this land, carefully 
surveyed, was kept intact in the family as late as 1835. This is the 
only exact survey recorded, the rest of the land being only approx- 
imately estimated, as far as any one seems to know. The Stevens' 
land extended from Morse's Pond (once called Broad's Pond) to 

11 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

Weston town line 167 rods wide at Weston line; 377 rods was on 
line running north and south. A part of this land now belongs to 
Abel Stevens. A few years ago there stood a short distance in the 
rear of the present Stevens house, an old house which very possibly 
was the home of Jeremiah Gay who died according to the town 
records April 26, 1770. 

Wellesley Hills was included almost wholly in the tract of 
land assigned to Captain Daniel Fisher of Dedham, who took Sir 
Edmund Andros by the collar and drew him from his place of 
refuge back to Fort Hill in the Rebellion of 1699. 3 Our present tract 
of woodland known as the "Hundreds" is of course a part of the old 
1699 dividend. 

1 In the settlement of the plantation boundaries in 1C63 the Saw 
Mill Brook -was made the boundary line of Dedham at this point and 
this was adhered to in the after adjustment of 1700 and for one hundred 
and fifty years later the Saw Mill Brook and Pond are referred to in 
the conveyance of land in this direction. 

2 Tradition says that Indians in Deerfield, wishing to join the Na- 
ticks bargained their lands there for an equal number of acres in Ded- 
ham, adjoining Natick, and tiiat the tract assigned in exchange, being 
afterwards found to overrun, the amount of the leg was detached and 
sold to Samuel Morse, and his title recorded as above in the books of the 
proprietors of Dedham. On his death bis son Samuel settled on the 
Xatick land. (Morse's Genealogy.) 

3 Grievously oppressed by the administration of Andros, and hear- 
ing indirectly of the landing of the Prince of Orange in England and 
the consequent revolution in the government there, the people of Massa- 
chusetts, without waiting for a confirmation, determined to take its 
truth for granted, and simultaneously set about accomplishing a revo- 
lution of their own. On the morning of April 18, 1689, Boston was in 
arms. The governor and Council were seized and confined, and the 
old magistrates reinstated. The country people came into town in such 
heat and rage as made all tremble to think what would follow. Nothing 
would satisfy but that the Governor must be bound in chains or cords 
and put in a more secure place; and for their quiet he was guarded 
by them to the fort. Whose hand was on the collar of that prisoner, 
leading him through the excited crowd, at once securing him from es- 
cape and guarding him from outrage? ft was the hand of Daniel Fisher 
of Dedham; aye, "a second Daniel come to JUDGMENT," a son of the 
farmer, and heir of his energetic ardor in the cause of freedom, the son 
of Abigail Morse, and a just representative of traits characteristic of 
her father's race for at least five generations. (Copied from old records 
in Morse's Genealogy.) 

SEPARATION FROM NEEDHAM AND ORIGIN 

OF THE NAME 

Xatick was set off from Dedham in 1781, and Needham Lei; 
was added to Natick in 1797, one thousand six hundred and fifty- 
six acres being taken from Needham and Needham getting four 
hundred and four acres in turn, making a better boundary line on 
the south and fixing the final line between Natick and Needham 
which had previously been about on the line of the ponds — Waban 
and Morse's. 

From 1750 to 1796 the Hunnewell estate belonged to the Indian 
town of Natick, and when in 1797 an exchange was made with 
Needham for the so-called Needham Leg six hundred acres of the 
Hunnewell estate fell within the present town of Wellesley. In 
addition Needham received into its West Parish eighteen very de- 

12 



SEPARATION FROM NEED HAM 

sirable families which were a most welcome addition, and made 
the community feel authorized in calling a minister. Parson Noyes 
was the first minister and preached until 1833. 

In 1711 the western part of Needham was incorporated as 
Needham, the name being taken from the neighboring town of the 
English Dedham. 

From then to 1774 there was but one parish in the town of 
Needham, but as early as 1732 inhabitants of the westerly part 
asked to be freed of taxes. In 1738 it was voted "to free the in- 
habitants west of Natick Brook at this time as to repairing and 
building pews in the Meeting House." May 2, 1767 an article in 
the warrant called for "a committee to find the center of the town 
for a meeting house, otherwise let the westerly portion go over to 
Natick." This was passed in the negative. In 1774 after the burning 
of the meeting house the previous year it was voted not to accept 
of the judgment of the later committee for the court which was 
that the "Meeting House should stand at or near the second center 
in order to accommodate the town." The West End, however, was 
excused from paying towards the Meeting House if erected where 
the Town voted, and "provided they proceed in building a meeting 
house and maintain preaching among them." The petitions of 
1774 and 1778 resulted in the establishing of the West Parish. Two 
hundred pounds were at once raised by subscription and a meeting 
house was commenced but not finished for several years, and 
preaching was "maintained" but a settled ministry was not estab- 
lished for more than twenty years. 

July 6, 1778, the West Precinct, having been incorporated by 
act of the General Court, was formally organized by the choice of 
Captain Eleazer Kingsberry, moderator, Lieutenant William Ful- 
ler, precinct clerk, Captain Caleb Kingsberry, precinct treasurer, 
and Captain Eleazar Kingsberry, Lieutenant Isaac Goodenow and 
Mr. Jonathan Dewing, precinct committee. 

Freedom in religious matters did not, however, entirely satisfy 
the inhabitants of the westerly part of the town, as, very early, 
efforts were made to obtain separate political rights. A strenuous 
effort was made in 1801. In 1817 a committee chosen to investi- 
gate reported favorably for a division; 1820 and 1821 brought 
similar appeals. In 1852 i and 1859 2 efforts were again made, but 
in all cases they were practically ignored, and when the final divi- 
sion came, the records for the following town meeting in Needham 
contains no mention whatever of the change. 

In 1880 an appeal was made, with almost absolute unanimity by 
the inhabitants of the west side, now grown to be a large and 
wealthy community, to the Legislature, and with so great force 
of reason and argument that the petition was granted, and the 
town incorporated and named Wellesley. 

Under the act of incorporation, Solomon Flagg, town clerk of 
Needham for thirty years and a warm advocate of incorporation, 
called a meeting for the organization of the town and the follow- 
ing officers were chosen, April 18, 1881 : moderator, George K. 

13 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

Daniell; town clerk, Solomon Flagg; town treasurer, Albert Jen- 
nings; selectmen and overseers of the poor, Lyman K. Putney, Wal- 
ter Hunnewell, John W. Shaw; assessors, George K. Daniell, Jo- 
seph H. Dewing, Dexter Kingsbury; school committee, Joseph E. 
Fiske, for three years, Benjamin H. Sanborn, for two years, Mar- 
shall L. Perrin, for one year. 

At a subsequent meeting, April 30th, appropriations were made 
for expenses, among others, eight thousand dollars for schools, 
three thousand five hundred dollars for highways and sidewalks, 
and it was voted that no licenses to sell intoxicating liquors should 
be granted. 

Under the act of incorporation, certain matters were left for 
adjustment and settlement between the parent town and Welles- 
ley, which were all satisfactorily arranged, the provision with re- 
gard to the support of schools being put into the hands of a com- 
mission and settled later. 

In the autumn of 1882 it was voted by the town to petition 
the Legislature to pass an act to allow the town to introduce 
water for domestic and other purposes and a committee was chosen 
to examine into the matter of water supply and report to the 
town. 

The Legislature passed the act asked for and the committee, 
of which Judge George White was chairman, reported a plan to 
the town, advising pumping water from the borders of the Charles 
River, near the northeasterly limit of the town, on or near land of 
Charles Rice, into a reservoir upon Maugus Hill and thence dis- 
tributing it substantially over the whole town. This report was 
accepted and full effect given to it at a subsequent meeting, Dec. 
22, 1883, at which meeting Albion R. Clapp was chosen water com- 
missioner for three years, William S. Ware for two years and 
Walter Hunnewell for one year. 

The town of Wellesley is rectangular in shape though some- 
what irregular, being about four and one-half miles in length and 
about two and one-quarter in width. Its neighbors on the south 
are Needham and Dover, on the east, the "Garden City," Newton, 
on the north, Weston, and on the west, Natick. The Charles River 
flows along its entire eastern boundary, and for a short distance 
along its southeasterly limit. 

The town has a wide reputation for healthfulness, owing in 
great measure to its elevation, combined with the dryness of its soil 
and freedom from all malarial and other unhealthful tendencies. 
Its charm consists in its rural atmosphere, its pleasant homes, its 
delightful drives and its beautiful scenery. The main street, named 
for our first president and noted with favor by Washington when 
he made his tour in 1789, as a "good road," affords a notable drive, 
much of the way arched with trees, passing by churches of various 
architecture and varied beliefs, by the former home of Dr. Wil- 
liam Morton, the discoverer of that greatest of boons to human 
sufferers, sulphuric ether; by the college, the monument of Henry 
F. Durant; by beautiful Lake Waban, Lake of the Wind, named 

14 



SEPARATION FROM NEED HAM 

for Eliot's first convert, by the villas of the Hunnewells to the 
limits of the town of Natick. Two conduits of the Boston Water 
Works mar the landscape in general, but in a few places, as the 
long viaduct across Waban Brook, and the bridge across the Charles, 
add beauties of architecture to the natural scenery. 

The name "Wellesley" is derived from the Welles family. 
Samuel Welles, the maternal grandfather of the late Mrs. H. H. 
Hunnewell, Senior, bought the place at the corner of Washington 
Street and Pond Boad (then called Saw Mill Boad — later Ward's 
Lane) as early as 1763. This place was occupied by him for many 
years as a farm and summer home. 

His father, Samuel Welles, a graduate of Yale College, 1707, 
married Hannah Arnold and removed to Boston, where his wife in- 
herited large property in the vicinity of Boylston Market and where 
the State House now stands. The two sons, of Samuel, Samuel 
(born 1725, died 1799) and Arnold were graduated from Harvard 
College in 1744 and 1745 and appear first in the Triennial Cata- 
logue of the college, indicating their very high social position. 

Samuel married in 1772 Abigail Pratt, daughter of Chief Jus- 
tice Pratt of New York state. He was; succeeded in the ownership 
of the property by his nephew, John Welles, son of Arnold Welles. 
John Welles (born 1764, died 1855, ; a member of the class of Har- 
vard College 1782) was the lineal descendant of Thomas Welles, 
of royal English descent, who came over with Lord Say and Seele, 
as private secretary, in 1736, and was afterwards chosen one of 
the magistrates of the Colony of Connecticut, its treasurer, deputy 
governor, and finally governor. Besides being a member of the 
firm of Welles and Company, Paris and Boston bankers, John 
Welles was interested in scientific farming and stock-raising. He 
was a pioneer in the importation of blooded stock from England, 
giving especial attention to Durham stock. 

Mr. Welles at one time owned largely of real estate in Natick, 
Sherborn and surrounding towns, as well as in Needham. The town 
farm, now the Country Club, was bought from him by Needham 
in 1828, he having bought it from the Kingsbury family. 

The Welles homestead on Pond Boad originally belonged to 
Jonathan Bichardson, a blacksmith. The property contained a 
house and sixty-three acres of land in six parcels, all bought of 
the Indians previous, to 1743. This house was moved to the vil- 
lage of South Natick and the southwest end of the present house 
built. It is now over one hundred and fifty years old. A later 
part was built in 1829 by Arnold Welles who inherited from 
Samuel at his death in 1799 the homestead and 310 acres. Part of 
this including Train Hill, Maple Hill and King Hill, later became 
the property of Benjamin Welles, who was bought out by H. H. 
Hunnewell. Mr. Hunnewell also purchased from other heirs. 

The Morrill house, owned and built by Dr. Isaac Morrill in 
1775, was sold by him in 1836 to Cutler who in the same year 
conveyed to John Welles. This is now the home of Mrs. Francis 
W. Sargent. 

15 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

John Welles married Abigail (born 1776 and died 1844) the 
daughter of Samuel; and Isabella (Pratt) Welles, and their daugh- 
ter Isabella married H. H. Hunnewell, the son of Dr. Walter Hun- 
newell of Watertown. Mr. Hunnewell was born in 1810, and very 
early went, to Paris to engage in business in the firm of Welles 
and Company, remaining there until 1839, when he returned to 
Massachusetts, making his summer residence in the "Morrill 
House" until 1852, when he erected the present homestead 

This estate has been a prominent object of attraction in the 
town for many years, especially among those who take an interest 
in horticulture. The Italian Gardens overlooking the Lake and 
opposite the college buildings, laid out in 1854, were the first of 
their kind in the country. 

In addition to opening his gardens to the public, Mr. Hunnewell 
gave to the town a park of ten acres to surround the town hall 
and library, which building he gave "to promote the prosperity of 
the town of Wellesley and the welfare and happiness of its inhab- 
itants and at the same time to advance the cause of sound learning, 
education and letters." The period of construction of the library 
building ran from 1880 to 1883; and that of the town hall from 
1883 to 1886. 

The town seal was designed by the architect of the building, 
George R. Shaw, the brother of Robert G. Shaw. The open book 
stands for Wellesley College, the conventionalized flower across the 
book for the Hunnewell Gardens, and the tomahawk and Indian 
arrows for early associations with the Indian inhabitants. 

At a special town meeting in the fall of 1887 the following reso- 
lutions were unanimously adopted: "We, the citizens of Wellesley 
in town meeting assembled, cordially recognizing the continued 
public spirit and great generosity of our distinguished fellow-towns- 
man, H. Hollis Hunnewell, do heartily thank him, as for his former, 
so now for his latest munificent gift, the beautiful and commodious 
town hall, and assure him of our increasing esteem and affection : 
and it is further Resolved, that, while we accept the costly building 
for ourselves and for our children to be used in the interest of the 
town, we hold and cherish it, built as it is of imperishable stones, 
as a fitting memorial of the purity, integrity and worth of the man 
who gave it. And be it further Resolved, that these resolutions be 
entered on the records of the town and that they be forwarded to 
our fellow-townsman, H. H. Hunnewell." 

In 1915 a bronze tablet was put up on the wall in the entrance 
of the town hall, commemorating the gift. 

A further gift of land for a playground on Washington Street 
is of great value to the town. And it is a pleasure to record the 
continued interest and liberality of Mr. Hunnewell's descendants 
in all that purports to the welfare of the town. 

(Copied from a report of a special committee made December 
6, 1859.) 

(Also see paper on the division of the town at end of book.) 

16 



SEPARATION FROM NEED HAM 

1 An old document, evidently written by the editor's grandfather, gives 
the list of men who subscribed in 1852 in an effort to divide the east 
and west. General Charles Rice and Emery Fisk were the leaders in the 
movement. 

Proposition of the west Parrish to the East uppon the subject of 
divideing the Town. 

In case of a division We propose 

1st to sell all the public property & pay all debts the Town owe and 
divide the surplus if any equel betwen the two parishes. 

2nd We propose to surrender all our right & interest in the Dover 
school land to the East Parrish. 

3rd We propose to pay to the East parrish on the 2nd Monday of 
December annually for five years the sum of one Thousand dollars per 
year. 



This part of the document is unsigned but it is accompanied by the 
following statement of receipts and expenditures, showing who were the 
men interested: 



Needham, Feb. 1852. 
An account of money paid in on a subscription list for the purpose of 
defraying the Expense caused by petitioning the Legeslature to divide 
the town : 

Cash Rec'd. 

William Flagg .$3.00 James Moulton S1.00 

Emery Fisk 3.00 Richard Parker ' 1.00 

Lutner Gilbert 3.00 Edwin Fuller 1 00 

Charles Kingsbury 1.00 Augustus Fuller 1.00 

John A. Libby 50 Ruel Ware 1.00 

Henry L. Howe 50 Wm, H. Flagg 50 

Robert S. Rullard 50 C. T. Dedmon 50 

Nath. Wales, Jr 3.00 W. G. Snelling 1.00 

H. G. Perkins 1.00 D. Ware 1.00 

John Mansfield 50 Willard Kingsburv 1.00 

Dexter Kingsbury 1.00 George Smith . . . .' 1.50 

Daniel Ware 1.00 S. T. Smith 1.50 

, ,£• E ul - le , r . i- 00 Jonathan Fuller, Jr 3.00 

h V y," fright 1.00 George W. Hoogs, Jr 1.00 

* J - G HJ ld , 10 ° George F. Darling 1.00 

Andrew Bigelow 2.00 John Davis 1.50 

L. A. Kingsbury i.oo Daniel Morse 2.00 

George Jennings i.oo Dea. H. Fuller 50 

Then follows under date of March 1, 1852 the following statement: 
Account of Money Paid per order of the committee chosen for the 
purpose of attending to the subject of the petition upon dividing the 

March 1st, Paid J. B. Whitaker for plan of Town of Needham S5.37 

2nd paid for package tickets 3 00 

* 3rd paid at commonwelth office for printing l.\\ 

' 3rd Do plowman office 2 50 

" 9th Do for 2nd plan of Town ...............[ 5.00 

13th Do Col. Chester Adams for attending before the Committee 

at the Legeslature 90 

C. C. Andrews, Esq. for professional services .... 15 00 

Whiting and Russell , ) . Io!o0 



• i,« At j a sp S c ' al Tow n Meeting of the legal voters of Needham, on the 
£ rr «r a y of Novem ber last past, to act upon the petition of the Hon. 
is. K. Whitaker and others, for a Committee in reference to a division of 
the Town, as petitioned for to the Legislature by some of its inhabi- 
tants, and to make the necessary investigations respecting Town Paupers, 
&S?' S* 1100115 ' &c -» and report at an adjourned meeting, it was voted: — 
* * i a A. a c o mm i tte e of three from each part of the Town, be chosen 
to take the whole subject of this article into consideration, and report 
at an adjourned meeting, and the following persons were chosen: Artemas 
Newell, Lauren Kingsbury and Calen Orr for the easterly part of the 
Town, and William Flagg, John W. Shaw, and George K. Daniell, for 
the westerly part. Voted to adjourn this meeting to the first Tuesday 
in December next, at one o'clock, P. M. A true copy of record. Attest: 

Solomon Flagg, Town Clerk." 

17 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

The line of division of the Town, as petitioned for, as understood 
by the Committee, is delineated by a faint line on the published map 
of the Town, beginning at a point at Charles River, about a quarter of a 
mile below the Nail Factory at Upper Falls, and running southwesterly 
in straight line, crossing the road known as the "Worcester Turnpike" 
about a quarter of a mile westerly of said Nail Factory ; crossing the ar- 
tificial pond, and running near and westerly of the house of Isaac 
Flagg 2d; crossing the Rosemary Meadow, so-called, near and west of the 
house of Ralph Smith, running near and easterly of the residence of the 
late Otis Sawyer, and easterly of the Town Farm; crossing a road near and 
west of the house of Mr. Colcord, crossing a road near and west of 
Mr. Cartwright; thence running and crossing the highway near and 
east of the house of Mr. Risk, and west of the house of Mr. Knapp; 
thence running west of the Reynolds estate, crossing the new road lead- 
ing to Xatick, a few feet east of the bridge, to a point on Charles River, 
leaving the bridge on the west side of the line and the road on the east, 
— said line measuring, according to the map, from one point of the 
river to the other, about five and a quarter miles. 

ROADS AND BRIDGES 

Sherborn (Sherburne) Road, now Washington Street, was called 
such in deeds as late as 1857, perhaps later. On a map of the local- 
ity by Samuel Jones, surveyor, in 1718 it is spoken of as "Sherborn 
or Bay Road." It was the original Indian Path between Nonantum 
and Natick. Walnut Street was, until the latter part of the eight- 
eenth century, the main thoroughfare. i Linden Street from Rock- 
land Street bridge to Kingsbury Street was originally part of Sher- 
born Road. 

In 1822 alterations were made in Sherburne Road "by the lower 
falls and the highway should hereafter be known as a publice 
one." These alterations began at Peter Lyons' house (opposite the 
North School on Walnut Street) over the land of Stedman, Parker, 
Pratt and Slack 

In 1826 the town "voted that the road laid out in 1804 from 
Ware and WRder's store (in Wellesley Hills Square) to Seth Col- 
burn's (corner of Oakland and Washington Streets) be discontin- 
ued and the new road be accepted as it now stands." 

In 1846 it was voted to have a railway crossing at George 
Hoog's store (at the Lower Falls) and in 1853 a gate was placed 
there. In 1850 Washington Street was altered at the crossing of 
the Boston acqueduct on the Slack land. 

In 1859 alterations and improvements were made from the 
West Meeting House to the South Natick line; in 1870 from W. F. 
Norcross' to the Lower Falls railroad at a cost of §3,170.93; in 1872 
from Peter Morrill's to Dexter Ware's. 

Until 1881 the elms now on Mrs. Durant's lawn were on the 
south side instead of the north side of the road, and the same 
change, though at an earlier date, was made on the Unitarian Church 
lawn in Wellesley Hills. 

The first road north of Sherborn Road was laid out in 1711, 
when John Smith petitioned the town to grant him a way out on 
the boundary of his lot. This is probably the beginning of our 
present Weston Road, which is a very old road. Weston Road (later 
called Blossom Street and now Weston Road again) originally 
extended to the Parker farm, then later to the Cavanagh farm, 

18 



ROADS AND BRIDGES 

when it turned to the left through the present Meadow Lane to the 
house of Ephraim Stevens. 

Near here as early as 1661 Edward Hawes obtained a grant of 
land where he built a grist mill on the brook connecting Nonesuch 
Pond with Morse's. This contained forty-seven acres, and was in 
the Natick Divident "near the Watertown line and north of Natick 
path which leads from the Herd yards and south of Sudbury way." 

The following in regard to this early road is copied from the 
records of the town of Dedham: — 

"We whose names are hereunto inscribed being deputed by the 
selectmen of Dedham to lay out a highway from Sherborn Road to 
the farm of Jeremiah Gay which he bought of the town of Dedham 
have attended to s'd work and have laid out s'd way two rods wide. 

Daniel Fisk 
Andrew Dewing, Sec." 

August 30, 1711. 

In 1708 we find mention of a road across Sherburne Road to 
Andrew Dewing's land, which was probably the present Grove Street. 
Glen Road, from Newton Lower Falls to Weston, was built in 
1721 but was seven hundred feet east of the present bridge. 
February 19, 1738, the following petition is recorded: 
To the Hon. Selectmen of Needham: — 
Whereas your Petitioners having no way to Mill or Market ear- 
nestly desire that you would be pleased to lay us out a way that 
may accommodate us to go to Mill and Market, beginning at Natick 
line to Sherborn highway and that it may be so speedily done that 
it may be confirmed at March meeting and so your Petitioners in 
duty will ever pray. 

Stephen Racon 
John Goodanow 
Timothy Underwood 
Timothy Racon 
Edward Ward 
Thomas Frost 
Josiah Rroad 

These were names of owners of land along the north of Sher- 
born road. 

A record shows that Central Street was laid out in 1726, but 
Church Street, Common Street, originally, was the main thorough- 
fare to North Natick until 1838, when the selectmen and agents 
applied to the county commissioners of Norfolk County that "so 
much of the Central Turnpike as lies within said town, to-wit: 
between the town of Natick and Rlanchard's Hotel in said Need- 
ham should be laid out and established as a common highway. The 
said Turnpike is four rods in length and is laid out over land of 
heirs of Martha Jackson late of Natick deceased, Daniel Morse of 
Needham, Martin Rroad of Natick, Reman Ford of Needham, heirs 
Ralph Smith Esq., late of Roxbury deceased, heirs Joseph Kingsbury, 

19 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

late of Needham deceased, John Slack of Albany, N. Y., Alvin Fuller, 
2d., Needham, Henry T. Burr of Needham and Reuben Kingsbury 
of Boston, and partly over the old county road. This petition was 
granted and the road accepted by the authorities. This road had 
in 1824 been laid out from Brookline to Holliston as a "Turnpike 
Road by the name of the Central Turnpike in West Needham cross- 
ing the Worcester turnpike by White and Sargent's Hotel." The name 
Turnpike was in use at least as late as 1868. 

Many other roads were accepted and then rejected after being 
tried for awhile. A great many descriptions of boundaries may have 
been sufficient for the time but impossible for the modern inves- 
tigator to find. As it was all new land, it was often merely guess 
work as to where were the best places for roads, with the result 
that many of the layouts were frequently changed. The following 
divisions of roads were accepted at a town meeting held April 6, 
1829. "The first beginning at stake and stones at the road leading 
from Sherborn road a little west of the house formerly Col. Jona 
Kingsbury's to the East Meeting House, thence south 82 degrees east, 
to stake and stones in front of the aforesaid house, thence north 83 
degrees east to stake and stones where the new piece comes into 
the old road; the second piece beginning at stake and stones about 
10 rods east of the old saw mill dam across Rosemary Brook, thence 
through land at Gen. Chas. Rice, north 50 degrees east to stake 
and stones, thence north 77 degrees east to stake and stones, thence 
north 62 degrees east to stake and stones, where the new piece comes 
to the road leading from East Meeting House to Lower Falls. The 
third piece beginning at stake and stones near where the road parts, 
one leading to Lower Falls, the other to Upper Falls, thence 
through land to Moses Garfield, south 75 degrees, east to stake and 
stones at the road west of the house of Benj. Richardson, the afore- 
said new pieces of wall are staked out on the south side and are laid 
out 2 rods wide." 

In 1859 McCrackin Road was built at a cost of $381. In 1859 
Lovewell Road (now a part of Cottage Street) was built by William 
Flagg at a cost of $406.88. 

In 1873 a private way in Grantville between land of C. R. Miles 
and land of Noah Perin (Maugus Avenue) was laid out and accepted. 

In 1873 Woodlawn Avenue (formerly Grove Street also called 
Fisk Lane) in Grantville, was widened; $200 was awarded for land 
taken; $300 was asked for in addition. 

In 1873 Laurel Avenue, Grantville, was laid out. 

In 1878 the street now called Rockland Street was accepted by 
the town. "This street has been used as a public way for five or 
six years and has been kept in repair by Mr. John Sawyer. The 
street is 950 feet long and we consider it as a public necessity, as 
it is the only street leading from Washington to Worcester Street, 
between Wellesley and Grantville." 

In 1876 the names of the streets in the west part of the town 
as proposed by the selectmen were as follows: — 

20 



ROADS AND BRIDGES 

Albany Street, from Washington Street to Wellesley Depot, 336 
feet long and 40 feet wide. 

Allen Street, from Washington Street to Walnut Street, 1-8 mile 
long, 33 feet wide, estimated. 

Benvenue Street, from Brook Street to Dover Street, 5-6 mile 
long, 33 feet wide, estimated. 

Blossom Street, from Washington Street to Weston line 2 1-16 
miles long, with varying widths, some places less than 20 feet wide. 

Brookside Boad, from Forest Avenue to Oakland Street, 1 1-3 
miles long, 33 feet wide, estimated. 

Cedar Street, from the Arch Bridge, Newton Lower Falls to 
Central Avenue, at Hurd's Corner, 1 3-8 miles long, 33 feet wide, 
estimated. 

Central Street, from Wellesley Square to Natick line, 1 1-2 miles 
long and 55 feet wide. 

Cottage Street, from Washington Street to Grove Street, 2-5 
mile long, 33 feet wide, estimated. (Originally Lovewell Place.) 

Church Street, from Washington Street to Cross Street, 1-8 mile 
long, 40 feet wide, estimated. 

Columbia Square from Washington Street to the same, 1,390 
feet long and 37 feet wide. 

Cross Street from Central Street to Blossom Street, 1-8 mile 
long and 40 feet wide. 

Dover Street from Washington Street to Grove Street, 1-2 mile 
long, 33 feet wide, estimated. 

Forest Avenue, from Central Avenue to Washington Street 
(Grantville), 1 15-16 miles long, 33 feet wide, estimated. 

Glen Road, from Washington Street to Weston line, by Bice's 
Crossing, 1 mile long and 50 feet wide, from the brook, 2,100 feet. 

Grove Street, from Wellesley Square to Charles Biver Street, 
via Ridge Hill Farm, 1 7-8 miles long and 50 feet wide. 

Laurel Avenue, from Forest Avenue to Washington Street, 
1,214.7 feet long and 40 feet wide. 

Linden Street, from Washington Street, opposite Forest Avenue, 
to Washington Street, 3-7 miles long, 33 feet wide, estimated. 

Oakland Street from Washington Street to Wellesley Avenue, 
1 7-8 miles long, with varying widths. 

Pond Road from Lake Crossing to Washington Street, 1 1-5 
miles long, 33 feet wide, estimated. 

Pennsylvania Avenue from Forest Avenue to Town House, 330 
feet long, 33 feet wide estimated. 

Seaver Street, from Forest Avenue to Wellesley Avenue, 2458 
feet long and 40 feet wide. 

Walnut Street from Washington Street to Newton line, 7-8 mile 
long, 33 feet wide, estimated. 

Washington Street from Lower Falls to Natick line, 4 4-7 miles 
long and varying widths. 

Wellesley Avenue from Washington Street, Wellesley (once 
known as Noyes Corner) to Central Avenue at Hurd's Corner, 2 1-4 
miles long, 33 feet wide, estimated. 

21 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF YVELLESLEY 

Wellesley Square, Wellesley. 

Woodlawn Avenue, from Washington Street running northerly 
1,630 feet long and 40 feet wide. (Originally Grove Street, but 
locally known as Fisk Lane.) 

Worcester Street from Newton Upper Falls to Natick line, 5 1-6 
miles long and 66 feet wide west of Washington Street, and 40 feet 
wide east of Washington Street. 

The building of Worcester Turnpike was undertaken by a pri- 
vate concern about 1807 and finished and opened for toll traffic in 
1810. During the War of 1812 it was used to transport merchandise 
to the western part of the state and New York. Within the precincts 
of Wellesley, at the junction of Blossom Street (Weston Road), there 
were two toll-gates for traffic in both directions. After the opening 
of the railroad in 1834 the stockholders gained permission from 
the Legislature to give up the company as the business did not 
warrant its continuance. 

The first bridge was built by the county very early on the old 
Sherborn Road north of the present bridge on Wales Street. The 
labor was done by the Indians who worked for a shilling a day. 
The total cost of the bridge was five pounds. East Needham used 
the bridge for a long time until a petition to the General Court 
representing the great loss of time and money by the longer distance 
to travel resulted in a bridge being built at the upper falls of the 
river. Mills Bridge was later and probably took the place of this 
bridge, connecting Wales Street and Walnut. 

In 1793 we read of a bridge near Hoogs' snuff mill in the lower 
falls; this was probably Pratt's Bridge, also called Flume Bridge 
in deeds of 1827. 

In 1867 we find record of repairing done on nearly every bridge 
in town. 

In 1872 the "Arched Culvert near Lake Crossing" was built at 
a cost of $9,446.76. 

In 1873 the wooden bridge at Lower Falls was rebuilt within 
the limit of the appropriation of $3,000. This bridge was rebuilt 
in 1910. 

In 1899 the bridges at Newton Upper Falls and Lower Falls 
were replanked. 

J It is uncertain when the lower part of Washington Street was first 
used as a public highway, but it is understood that Washington passed 
over it in 1789 when he made his trip through the New England States. 
He is said to have stopped at the well at the Pratt house which was then 
iust east of St. John's Church and asked for a drink of water. The well 
has long been filled up and the Washington elm had to be cut down in 
1895. In his diary Washington writes: "Friday, Nov. 6, 1789: A little 
after seven o'clock under great appearance of rain or snow we left Wal- 
tham and passing through Needham (5 miles therefore) breakfasted at 
Sherborn which is 14 miles from the former. Then passing through 
Holliston 5 miles, Milford G more, Mendon 4 more, to Uxbridge 6 more, 
we lodged at Taft's 1 mile further; the whole distance of this day's travel 
being 36 miles. From Watertown till you get near Needham the road is 
very level — about Needham it is hilly, then level again and the whole 
pleasant and well cultivated till you pass Sherborn; between this and 
Holliston is some hilly and rocky ground, so there is in places onward 
to Oxbridge; some of which are very bad. Upon the whole it may be 
called an indifferent road — diversified by good and bad land — culti- 

22 



NEWTON LOWER FALLS— FACTORIES 

vated and in woods— some high and bare and others low wet and piney. 
Grass and Indian Corn is the chief product of the farms. Rye composes 
a part of the culture of them but wheat is not grown on account of the 
blight. The roads in every part of this State are amazingly crooked, to 
suit the convenience of every man's fields. Also we went out of our way 
frequently, being often misdirected." 

NEWTON LOWER FALLS — FACTORIES 

Lower Falls, to a certain extent a manufacturing village, is an 
old settlement. In 1703 John Leverett deeded to John Hubbard of 
Roxbury "four acres of land upon the Charles River at the Lower 
Falls, bounded on the east by a forty-acre lot belonging to Harvard 
College, west by the old path that leads to the wading place, — for- 
merly the Natick path — and south by the Charles River — being the 
same land which the proprietors of the common and undivided land 
in Cambridge granted to him, and the same which has since been 
occupied by all the mills on the Newton side." This land John 
Hubbard deeded to his son Nathaniel who later sold to Jonathan 
Willard, the first Baptist in Newton and a "bloomer" by trade. Here 
in 1704 he established his first iron works. In 1718 he deeded to 
his son Israel his "dwelling house, barn, calash house, one-half of 
my saw mill and one-half of my corn mill, the fulling mill with 
one-half the dam that is on one side of the River with conveniences 
to dam across according to an agreement we have made with Eben- 
ezer Littlefield of Newton." 

In 1705 Benjamin Mills was licensed to "keep a public house 
near the rock marked B.M." Below at the site of the shoddy mills, 
Ephraim Jackson first established his business followed by William 
Hoogs. An iron foundry was early established near the upper 
privilege. 

The Mills family owned and carried on manufacturing until 
after the middle of the eighteenth century. A conveyance was made 
by them to Taylor, who conveyed to Ephraim Jackson, a Newton 
man owning land on both sides of the river. Jackson owned a grist 
mill and built a paper factory on the same site that later was occu- 
pied by Walcott and Hurd as a nail factory. Hnrd bought it and in 
1825 sold a part to Lemuel Crehore who bought him out in 1829. 
Neal was with Crehore but had no financial interest. Press paper 
for patterns for carpets and curtains was manufactured here. But 
especially "bonnet board" for stiffening for the large straw bonnets 
which were worn so much in the first part of the last century. 
Jacquard was the inventor of patterns for carpets and damasks, the 
cards for which were manufactured here. These patterns are still 
used in the press work at the factory. 

The firm names have been Hurd and Crehore 1828, Crehore and 
Neal 1834, Lemuel Crehore 1845, Lemuel Crehore and Son (George C.) 
1854, Lemuel Crehore and Co. (C. F.) 1867, C. F. Crehore 1868, C. F. 
Crehore and Son (F. M.) 1883. 

In 1790 John Ware who lived in Newton built the first paper 
mill at the Lower Falls, which he sold to Solomon Curtis in 1800. 
Mr. Curtis carried it on during his life time and later his sons and 

23 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

grandsons. At one time the sons A. C. & W. Curtis supplied much 
of the book paper used in the United States. In the early 60's 
Cordingley bought it and it is now a shoddy mill. 

Across the river from this mill and on the Wellesley side is 
the stone mill now idle, where Reuben Ware and William Clark in 
1832 had built a machine shop. This land had been bought from 
Lemuel Crehore the previous year. Eaton and Moulton were later 
owners as well as Joseph Stow who added Adam Beck to the firm 
in 1858, and who finally bought out all interests in 1885 and ran 
it himself until it was closed in 1905. In the transfers to Beck the 
name of Clark still appears, evidently keeping some interests. 

In 1822 Amos Lyon bought of Curtis, Nichols, and Hooper and 
built a paper mill on the Jackson site, where a factory had been 
burnt in 1814. Again burnt in 1834 it was rebuilt and sold to 
Wales and Mills who owned it until 1860 when it was sold to 
Thomas Rice Jr. Bishop bought it but never rebuilt it after it was 
burnt in 1894. 

In 1810 Peter Lyon built a mill on the site of Benjamin Slack's 
fulling mill. William Lyon made paper to 1830, when he sold to 
William and Adolphus Durant, who sold in 1837-8 to John Rice 
and Crane. Rice died and Crane ran it. Thomas Rice Sr. had it in 
1836 and Thomas Rice Jr. in 1866. A paper collar factory was run 
by Swan for a short time here. About this time H. B. Scudder 
interested a group of Boston financiers among whom were Dudley P. 
Fay, Eugene Foss, the Saltonstalls, Motleys and others. These 
formed a company called the Dudley Hosiery Mills Corporation and 
was run as such for some time. It was sold out and is now the 
Wellesley Knitting Mills. (These mills are next to the stone machine 
mills.) 

A deposition made by John Slack in 1813 and recorded in Ded- 
ham says that he received the fulling mill from his father in 1784. 
that there were on the Needham side a grist mill, a saw mill and a 
fulling mill. In the transfer of this mill in the Durants' time a rag 
house is mentioned, also water rights and the privilege of drawing 
water preferable to any other mill. 

The water rights today (1917) belongs to Bishop, Cordingly, 
Crehore, Sullivan, Wellesley Knitting Mills and the old stone mill 
now taxed to Grace I. Butterfield of Newtonville. The Curtises, 
Crehores and Rices were very important and large paper manufac- 
turers, being very successful and up to date in their methods. The 
first Foudrinier machine that was used in America was set up here 
by the Curtises. Until wood pulp was used by the Transcript it was 
supplied with its paper from the Rice mills. These Rices lived on 
the Newton side on "Rice's" or College Hill, called by the latter 
name, because the story goes that at one time it was proposed to 
build Harvard College there. 

In 1788 a dam was built bj' William Hoogs and Francis Wright 
and a mill erected at about the same time. There had been no 
bridge here before, and only a "wading place," mentioned in old sur- 
veys where teams were obliged to pass. (This is the present bridge 

24 



NEWTON LOWER FALLS— FACTORIES 

across the river at Washington Street and the ford can still he 
seen.) Paper was made on the Needham side. The various owners 
were Hoogs and Wright to 1810, Samuel Brown and Artemas Mur- 
dock (whose daughter married a son of Solomon Curtis) to 1811, 
Charles Rice to 1818, Parker and Pierce to 1836, Joseph Greenwood 
and Paul Dewing who rebuilt and sold to Benjamin Farliss about 
1847; A. C. Curtis and Son until the Civil War, Thurston, Loring 
& Co., the Boston Belting Co. and since 1874 R. T. Sullivan has 
owned and operated it as a shoddy mill. Across the river where 
there is now a little park Joseph Foster had a stone mill, later oper- 
ated by A. C. Wiswall and then by Wiswall Sons. Manilla, colored 
and hanging papers were manufactured. 

Before Foster came Artemas Murdock made chocolate here. 

On the Charles Rice property Henry Wood had his paint works. 
In 1848 his business so increased that he removed to Morse's Pond, 
buying out the mill rights of Samuel Morse, who had been manu- 
facturing here since 1812. Here his descendants are successfully 
carrying on the paint business. In addition to this Mr. Wood under- 
took the making of cement for building houses. Portland cement 
which is now used had to be imported then and was very expen- 
sive. The result was that natural cement was used and was of a 
poorer quality and easily crumbled. But at this time it was an 
unusual method, few people understanding the process. The 
"Heckle house," burnt in 1910, was one of the houses built of this 
material. 

Isaac Farwell had a silk factory on the Rice land but soon went 
to Nonantum. Before the watch company settled in Waltham an 
offer was made to Mr. Rice to buy his land, but no agreement could 
be made. 

It is said the Ledyard Street was so named because lead was 
brought in here for the paint factory. 

Later occupations have been, Conant and Hanchett who had a 
paint works, Leslie who had a cabinet shop, and Charles Rice who 
had a planing mill and a grist mill. At no time does it seem that 
the land went out of the possession of the Rice family, but that the 
different manufacturers leased or rented whatever part of the 
property they needed. 

On Worcester Turnpike, Rosemary Brook — now Longfellow 
Pond — was dammed and a mill built by Charles Pettee in 1815 for 
a nail factory. A part of the land around the brook belonged to 
the Ephraim Ware estate, which had been left in part to the West 
Parish. And in behalf of the church Benjamin Slack sold it to 
Rice in 1825. In 1833 the town of Needham sold to Isaac Keyes 
thirteen acres on Worcester Street. Paper manufacturing was car- 
ried on successively by Thomas Rice, Keyes, and Luther Crane who 
bought out Keyes in 1836. Later Nathan Longfellow bought them 
out. The Cranes — Luther and Zenas — manufactured green paper 
shades and Longfellow paper hangings. 

In 1883 the larger factories on the Wellesley side at the Falls 
were the Hosiery mills, the paper mills of Mr. Rice, the chemical 

25 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

factory of Billings & Clapp— established in 1872, discontinued in 
1898, Clapp having previously sold out to Edgar Billings in 1896 — 
and in Wellesley village the shoe factory of Turner & Smart, now 
the Eliot, a college dormitory, and the paint factory of Mr. Woods 
whose production of colors increased from six pounds to six tons 
a day. Today (1917) there are the Wellesley knitting mills, the 
Sullivan shoddy mills, the mica works on the same site as the 
chemical works, and the Woods plant near the Natick line. 

The greater part of the mills and factories have always been 
on the Newton side of the river, but the Curtises, the Rices, the 
Crehores, are names indissolubly linked with the building up of 
the village on both sides of the river, and the beautiful old houses 
in the Quinobequin valley still cluster around St. Mary's, one of 
the old churches of the diocese.i 

1 Thomas Durant and Solomon Curtis were the first wardens of the 
church. 



RAILROADS AND POST OFFICES 

The Boston and Worcester steam railway was begun in 1832, 
the charter being granted in 1831, and for a few months in 1834 
the terminus was near the present Worcester Street Bridge. The 
road was finished to Worcester July 3, 1835. The main line of the 
road was originally intended to enter the town through Newton 
Lower Falls, and Wellesley Hills, but the project was opposed by 
the community. The tremendous work of removing the "Needham" 
ledge took many months, the trains carrying the gravel to Boston, 
where a great deal of Wellesley was dumped into the Back Bay, 
thus helping in the establishment of that community. 

The Wellesley Farms station, built in 1890, in the northeasterly 
part of the "Hundreds" was formerly merely a spot at which to flag 
a train. The first station, Rice's Crossing, was north of the bridge, 
instead of south. North Needham, Grantville, for a few months 
Nehoiden, but Wellesley Hills since 1881, and West Needham, 
Wellesley since 1863, are the other two stations on the main line. 

The Newton Lower Falls branch was opened in January, 1846. 

The changes in times and fares are not very marked, consider- 
ing the improvements that have been made. It took thirty min- 
utes to run out to Newton, the fare being thirty cents, forty cents to 
West Needham, sixty cents to Natick, seventy cents to Framing- 
ham, and a dollar and a half to Worcester. The fares in the first 
car were two-thirds of the prices in the rest of the train. In 1870 
gates and gatesmen were established. 

In 1869 the Rockland Street bridge was raised, and again in 
1893, in order that the trans-continental trains might pass under. 

The building of the present attractive railroad stations was 
begun in the eighties, Wellesley Hills being built in 1885. 

The first post office in the town was established in 1830 with 
Charles Noyes, son of Parson Noyes, as postmaster in a little shop 
where the postmaster conducted his business, that of an optician. 

26 






Old (irantvii.i.e Station 
(Alx.ut INN 1 1 




Rockland Street Bridge 
(Fast Day, 1893) 



RAILROADS AND POST OFFICES 

The mail was brought once in two days by the Uxbridge coach.i 
It was known then as the West Needham Post Office, but since 
June 24, 1862, has been called Wellesley. 

The post office at Wellesley Hills was established as Grant- 
ville in October, 1851, with W. H. Adams as postmaster and was 
kept in his house in which was also a private school. Wellesley 
Hills, formerly called The Port, and also North Needham,- was con- 
nected with Needham by coach. Its name was changed to Grant- 
ville in 1851 after Moses Grant who presented a bell to the Con- 
gregational Church when it was built. He was a merchant of Bos- 
ton particularly interested in the care of boys and in temperance 
reform. Not only did he help the middle village, but he also was 
interested in St. Mary's at the Fails, though himself a Unitarian, 
giving the parish $500.00 at one time.2 

The following have been the postmasters in the two villages 
since the establishing of the post offices: West Needham, Charles 
Noyes, March 4, 1830; William Flagg, July 23, 1833; Horace Blanch- 
ard, Dec. 5, 1839; William Flagg, May 18, 1841; E. P. Knight, April 
17, 1861; Ezekiel Peabody, March 5, 1862; name changed to Welles- 
ley June 24, 1862. F. W. Fuller, June 26, 1864; C. H. Mansfield, 
Oct. 16, 1872; William H. Flagg, June 26, 1875; Reuben K. Sawyer, 
Feb. 10, 1886; the office was discontinued as such and made a sta- 
tion of Boston Feb. 23, 1913. 

The post office at Grantville was established Oct. 7, 1851, with 
W. H. Adams as postmaster. John Davis Sept. 13, 1852; Alvin 
Fuller 2d Aug. 14, 1854 ;3 Mary P. Austin Jan. 29, 1877; the name 
was changed to Wellesley Hills Sept. 27, 1881; Calvin W. Smith 
Sept. 8, 1898; Mary C. Smith Nov. 17, 1903; discontinued as such 
and consolidated with Wellesley Nov. 30, 1905. 

The Wellesley Farms Post Office was established in the early 
nineties, in a house of J. F. Wight but is now at the station under 
the charge of J. F. Whitney, station master. Like the other offices 
of Wellesley it is a station of Boston and a part of Wellesley. 

1 "There are three principal ways through this town, leading from 
Boston to Hartford, Connecticut; namely, Worcester Turnpike, through the 
north part; Central Turnpike, through the center; and the old Hartford 
Road, so called, through the south part. On the Worcester Turnpike, the 
great southern mail passes each way daily. Several other mail and accom- 
modation stage coaches are very frequently passing. On the Central Turn- 
pike, Boston and Hartford Telegraph line of stage passes every day, 
Sunday excepted, up one day and down the next. On the old Hartford 
way, the Boston, Mendon and Uxbridge daily line of stage coaches passes, 
and continues on to Hartford three days in the week, and returns to 
Boston on the other three. Thus is the Christian Sabbath a day of rest. 

"There are two Post Offices; one on the Worcester Turnpike, and the 
other on the Hartford road, where a mail is opened daily, Sundays 
excepted." 

(Biglow's History of Natick, 1830.) 

2 Moses Grant's father was a great patriot and one of the famous Tea 
Party who destroyed the tea on board the "Dartmouth" and other ships 
on the 16th of December, 1773. In this work the party was organized in 
three divisions, each of which kept to its assigned duty. There was one 
division to raise the chests to the deck, another to break them open, and 
a third to throw their contents overboard. Mr. Grant's place was in the 
second division whose function it was to break open the chests, which 

27 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

was done chiefly by catsticks taken from a wood-pile close at hand on 
the wharf. Mr. Grant used to relate an interesting incident connected 
with this important Tea-party. The people in the neighborhood, seeing 
the fatigue they were undergoing, prepared and brought to them some 
pails of punch. It was received courteously but not drank. The pails 
were passed along over the deck and their contents, like those of the open 
chests, poured into the sea. The patriots needed no such stimulants and 
scorned to use them. 

(Memorial Sermon on Moses Grant.) 

3 A good deal has been said and some written about our own post- 
master, Alvin Fuller, and much amusement has been had on account of 
his method of carrying and delivering mails. I would like to exhibit 
another side of his character. When I was in the service of the United 
States in the Civil War. especially when I was in prison, my parents were 
naturally anxious to hear any tidings from me, which came rarely indeed 
and with meagre detail. Whenever a letter did arrive (and no closely 
curious investigation was necessary to indicate the source of the letter) 
if my father had not put in an appearance at the station before nightfall, 
Mr. Fuller would hitch up his old nag after his long day's work and 
drive down to my house with his welcome missive; an instance of early 
unselfish rural delivery. 

Mr. Fuller had a habit as Station Agent of coming out between the 
"Trains" and sitting down by the window with a paper but often drop- 
ping off to sleep. Also some of our young politicians, wise or otherwise, 
used the station as a place of conference, and seeing Mr. Fuller was 
asleep did not always adopt the "Tilden whisper," and thus Mr. Fuller's 
eyes being shut and his mind alert, some of their plans miscarried; why, 
they have not known to this day. 

Mr. Fuller was also in a position to size up men who used to forget 
to pay for tickets, for which they had not time to settle. Mr. Fuller was 
kind,' generous and thoughtful, and I do not believe ever injured any one 
through his innocent curiosity, which, of course, was widely understood. 
Once I carried back a postal which should have gone to Graniteville, and 
called Mr. Fuller's attention to the fact that it was addressed to an- 
other place, when he said, "I thought it was a queer postal to be sent to 

He would often carry letters in his hat to church on Sunday and 
deliver them. 

CHURCHES 

The West Precinct or Parish did not finish its meeting house 
until 1798, though it had been worshipped in for twenty years. 
The church faced Church Street which was then the main thorough- 
fare to North Natick. The church property was originally but a 
half acre of land, which had been transferred to the West Precinct 
by Jonathan Smith in 1774 for the sum of two pounds. 

Thomas Noyes, the first pastor, served the church from 1799 
to 1833. When the land exchange was made between Natick and 
Needham Deacon William Biglow, Major Hezekiah Broad, the Stow 
family, Dr. Isaac Morrill attended and after the death of Parson 
Badger, his widow also came to the West Needham Church. In 
1805 Madam Badger (Lady Lothrop of "Oldtown Folks" fame), 
presented to the church a large and handsome Bible on condition 
that "portions of Scripture be publickly read from it usually on 
the Sabbath." This Bible was lost in the late fire. On her death 
bed she changed her will, leaving the larger part of her property to 
Mr. Noyes, instead of to her business manager as in a previous 
one. This former will was defended by Daniel Webster in 1822 
in the famous Badger Will Case, and was won by him. The Noyes' 
tomb in the old cemetery was left by her to Mr. Noyes. 

The Church, having fallen sadly in need of repair, it was voted 

28 




Third Meeting House 
(Destroyed by lire, Doc. 30, 1916) 




The First Meeting House, Weixesley 



CHURCHES 

that a new one be built and this was done and the building dedi- 
cated January 1835. The contract was for $2750 plus the old 
building. 

Again in 1869 C. B. Dana and H. F. Durant with others were 
put on a committee to consider the advisability of a new building. 
Nothing was done for a year and Mr. Durant urged further delay 
in order that he might consider whether the "Female Seminary" 
he was about to build would need pews in the church. "He, how- 
ever, consented to an agreement with the society that in consider- 
ation of his subscription of $5000.00 to the fund the Seminary 
should have the right at any time within five years to erect gal- 
leries in the church to accommodate at least three hundred persons, 
and that these galleries should be at all times for the sole and ex- 
clusive use of the teachers and scholars of said Seminary, free from 
any rent, tax, or any charge of any kind. Mr. Durant found soon 
after that it would be better for the Seminary to have a Chapel of 
its own, and the agreement lapsed with the close of the designated 
time. The present galleries were built in 1887." 

The church building was dedicated July 11, 1872, and the archi- 
tects were Moses Hammett and J. E. Billings, who had drawn the 
plans of the "Main Building" of the College, destroyed by fire 
March 1914. This building was destroyed by fire December 30, 
1916, and many of its old keepsakes burnt. 

The old building had been bought by Mr. Dana for $1000 and 
moved to his land on Grove Street and made into a building suit- 
able for a school. Later it was given to Wellesley College which 
kept it until 1899, renting it since 1881 to the Misses Eastman. Mr. 
Durant previous to 1881 used it for a normal and graduate school. 
Since 1899 it has been the property of Miss Helen Temple Cook. 

A singing school was established March 30, 1807. In 1828 it 
was "voted to take the Sabbath School under the patronage of the 
Church"; a meeting for the study of the Bible having been carried 
on since May 20, 1807. In 1856 the Betsey Brown Legacy of $6000 
was received, and two years later a strip of land was bought to 
enlarge the cemetery. In 1878 land for a new cemetery on Great 
Plain Avenue was bought and in 1882 the Wellesley Hills Congre- 
gational and Unitarian Societies joined, and the Woodland Cemetery 
Association was incorporated. Previous to this the Village Ceme- 
tery having become too crowded, the Wares, Fullers, Lyons, 
Wilders, and others living in Grantville, bought lots in the Newton 
Cemetery in the late 60's. 

The first deacons of the church were Joseph Daniel and 
William Biglow. Mr. Noyes' successor was Joseph W. Sessions, 
ordained Oct. 2, 1833, dismissed May 31, 1842; succeeded Oct. 6, 1842 
by Rev. Harvey Newcomb, dismissed July 1, 1846; Andrew Bigelow, 
July 7, 1847 to Feb. 2, 1853; A. R. Baker, Jan. 1, 1856, dismissed 
1861; George G. Phipps, Jan. 23, 1868, dismissed April 1, 1878; P. D. 
Cowan, April 9, 1879 to June 30, 1890; Dr. Eldridge Mix acting 
pastor from Jan. 1891 to June 1, 1892; Rev. Lewis W. Hicks from 
Dec. 13, 1892 to May 26, 1896; Rev. E. H. Chandler from April 8, 

29 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

1897 to Oct. 31, 1900; Rev. W. W. Sleeper, the present pastor was 
installed May 13, 1902.1 

The Congregational Church at Wellesley Hills was organized 
in 1847. It was an offshoot of the Wellesley Church, and com- 
menced with thirty members, who felt that they lived too far 
from the other church. Meetings were held in the Railroad House 
(later Maugus Hall) to discuss the matter. For some time relig- 
ious services were conducted in the home of W. H. Adams, who 
had a large hall suitable for the purpose. When the church was 
built in 1851 Moses Grant gave a bell to the society, hence the name 
Grantville. 

In 1877 the church was remodelled, but a new one was greatly 
needed and the old one was torn down and the present one built 
in 1901 at a cost of about $45,000. 

The first deacons were John Batchelder and Reuel Ware. Rev. 
Harvey Newcomb was the first pastor from 1847-1849, and the suc- 
ceeding have been William Barrows, Aug. 22, 1850 — Jan. 22, 1856; 
Edward S. Atwood, Oct. 23, 1856— Sept. 21, 1864; Charles H. Wil- 
liams, July 25, 1867— Dec. 29, 1868; James M. Hubbard, Dec. 29, 
1868— Jan. 13, 1874; Jonathan Edwards, March 1, 1876— July 1894; 
Parris T. Farwell, 1895-1912; Carl M. Gates, Dec. 15, 1913, the 
present pastor. 

The Unitarian Society was gathered in 1869 and legally organ- 
ized as a corporation Feb. 27, 1871. The Society was composed of 
residents of Grantville who were members of the East Needham 
Unitarian Church and who naturally wished for a place of worship 
nearer home. Among the original members were Alvin Fuller, John 
Sawyer and his wife, the Boydens, the Phillips family, the 
Mclntoshes, C. R. Miles and his wife, and later the Austens and 
Eatons. Today it shares about equally with the Congregational 
Society in the new comers to the community. 

When Maugus Hall was chosen as their place of worship it was 
the only public gathering place in the village, and after the church 
had been organized some of the members did not wish it used 
for anything but their own meetings. A lively time and some 
friction ensued, but it was finally settled, and in 1871 the building 
was bought by the Society, and used by them until 1888, when 
the present church was erected. 

In June 1885 the name of the Society was changed from the 
Unitarian Society of Grantville to that of Wellesley Hills. During 
1890-91 the parsonage was completed. 

Rev. A. B. Vorse was their minister from 1871 to 1899. Rev. 
John Snyder succeeded him, resigning in 1909, followed in the same 
year by Rev. W. H. Ramsay, the present pastor. 

In 1870 at Boyden Hall, Newton Lower Falls, at the call of 
Father M. X. Carroll, pastor of St. Mary's Church at Newton Upper 
Falls, the Catholics of the Lower Falls assembled. Services were 
held there until St. John's was opened April 18th, 1878, and dedi- 
cated by Archbishop Williams May 8, 1881. It ceased to be a mis- 
sion of St. Mary's in 1890. Father Dolan ministered until 1885 

30 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

when the Rev. Martin O'Brien was in charge until 1890. That year 
the Rev. Patrick H. Callanan took charge until 1911, when the pres- 
ent pastor, Father Knappe, who is assisted by Father Murphy, was 
installed. 

The mission of St. John's in Wellesley village has just (1916) 
built a most attractive chapel, St. Paul's having worshipped in the 
Taylor block for a great many years and previously in the Boys' 
Club House on Central Street. 

A Methodist Church was built in Pine Plain (later known as 
Unionville and now Wellesley Fells) on land given by William 
Bogle. Jesse Lee from the South, founder of Methodism in New 
England, preached in the West Parish Oct. 6th, 1791 the first Meth- 
odist sermon in Needham and aroused much interest. The "Hun- 
dreds Meeting House" so-called, was erected in 1798 and preaching, 
largely by circuit ministers, was maintained for forty years. George 
Pickering was the first preacher, a man of power and fame in his 
later ministry. Father Isaac Jennison was also stationed in the 
Needham circuit. William Bogle, who lived just across the line in 
Weston was a Methodist leader. In 1792 the Needham Circuit 
covered all the territory between Boston and Worcester. 

The Church has since been moved and is owned and lived in 
by John Cavanagh. Among the early names were Stevens, Mansfield, 
Fisk, Harrington, Bogle, Jenison, Pierce who gradually left and 
helped to build churches in Natick and Weston nearer their own 
homes. 

In 1892 a confirmation service, conducted by Bishop Brooks was 
held in the Wellesley Congregational Church and in 1894 (land 
having been purchased in 1892) St. Andrew's parish in Wellesley 
dedicated their church. Previous to that services had been held in 
the Lower Town Hall, and the old Waban block — land was purchased 
in 1892. Their pastors have been the Rev. W. E. Hayes, to 1901, 
Rev. George Nattrass to 1913 and Rev. Ellis B. Dean the present 
rector. 

The old church of St. Mary's at the Falls is across the line in 
Newton, but around it cluster many happy and sacred memories of 
church celebrations when candles and music at Christmas time 
were used there and nowhere else in the vicinity. The Curtises, 
Rices, Crehores, Leslies, Pulsifers, Springs, on either side of the 
river have been and are communicants. 

1 For the history of the Wellesley Church see Mr. Chandler's hook. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

The earliest schools were taught in private houses wherever it 
was most convenient, and until 1795 the school houses were owned 
by proprietors, with but little reference to them in the town records. 

The following early votes recorded in the town book are of 
interest, showing the intention of the town and at the same time 
the inability or lack of energy to carry out the votes. In some 
cases the work may have been done, but the record does not show it. 

31 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

Aug. 1th, 1714 it was voted Matthus Tamline and John Fisher 
should teach children to read and write. 

Jan. 14th, 1719 it was voted to set up a "Schoole for the teach- 
ing of children for some time during the year and that there should 
be a rate made of six pounds for the support of the School. It was 
voted to chuse a committee to look after a parcel of land given for 
the support of the school by Mr. Timothy Dwight. Also that the 
school should be a moving school kept at three places convenient." 

Dec. 11th, 1721 it was voted to treat with Mr. Daniel Fisher for 
teaching school 15 weeks for 8£s. 

Mar. 13, 1721 voted that the Selectmen should "consider and 
take prudent care to uptain a schoole in ye best manner for ye 
good of the town and advantage of children and granted 6£s for ye 
charge of ye schoole." 

Oct. 30, 1722 to see what the town should do to uptain a school 
and a rate or 10£s granted. 

Jan. 18, 1723 £5 were given by the late Samuel Woodbridge for 
school, the money was let out at interest. 

Nov. 19, 1723 the selectmen discussed schools in their meeting. 

Nov. 29, 1723 voted to have a school. 

Until 1725 the east part of the town probably had the use of 
the money and teachers were provided for that part rather than 
in the west. But on January 11, 1725 £15 was granted and the 
inhabitants of the West End, The Leg, were to have their share of 
the money to maintain "a Schoole amongst them." It was also 
voted "that there should be a school kept in four parts of the town, 
viz: one near the house of John Smith, one near the house of 
Ephraim Ware, Sen., (who lived near Rosemary Brook now Long- 
fellow's Pond) one near the house of Deacon Woodcock, and another 
near that of Joshua Smith. Stephen Bacon was to receive the money 
belonging to the west end of the Town for the benefit of a school 
for the year 1725. 

On May 6, 1728 a petition signed by Josiah Kingsbury and 
twenty-four other men living in the west part of the town was 
presented, and "they pledged themselves to pay William Chubb if 
he would build a school house on the county road middle way 
between the houses of Nathaniel Bullard and Henry Pratt." There 
were seventy-six subscribers, and they contributed thirty-one pounds 
six shillings. Such a house was built and stood on what is now 
Linden Street, Wellesley Hills near the site of the house owned by 
the Livermores. 

On July 29, 1730, Capt. Robert Cooke, John Smith, Bobert 
Fuller, Josiah Kingsbury and Andrew Dewing were chosen to 
answer a petition of the "Westerly inhabitants of Needham to the 
General Court for a schoole." Twenty pounds were voted. This 
was the first school house in Wellesley village and stood near the 
A. B. Clarke house (formerly Solomon Flagg). 

A districting of the schools in 1790 resulted as follows: Great 
Plain, Fisher's School, The Centre Brick School, the district near the 
Upper Falls, the Lower Falls district, the West End District, the 

32 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

school by the West Meeting House; the last three and the Centre 
Brick Schools being in this part of the town. The West End Dis- 
trict ("Needham Leg") was soon to be incorporated into Natick. 
The Centre Brick School was near an old tree stump which is on 
the Town Farm land and within the precincts of Wellesley. 

In 1804 the proportion of the $600 voted for the schools by the 
town resulted in the West School near the Meeting House having 
$133.89 and the Lower Falls $89.89. There were frequent requests 
for a larger school in the West End and finally May 29, 1809 the 
petition was granted. In 1811 we find a record which seems to indi- 
cate that the land on which the school had previously stood belonged 
to the town. 

The site of the North School boasts of three school buildings, 
besides the present one, the first reaching back to a very early date 
was a black, unpainted building sold about 1833, and moved to the 
land near the W. C. Norcross house. The second was bought by 
General Bice in 1842 and is on Columbia Boad back of the Catholic 
Church; and the third is the double house on the corner of Wash- 
ington Street and Lower Crescent, bought by William Heckle, forty 
or more years ago. 

In Wellesley Fells, then Pine Plain, the first record of a school, 
after many petitions for one in the "northwest," is as recent as 1854, 
with Miss Hannah J. Ware as the first teacher. 

March 9, 1741 it was voted "to allow those persons on the other 
side of Natick Brook their part of the school money for this year 
provided they lay it out for schooling among themselves." 

In 1836 the records seem to indicate that a School Committee 
was first chosen as distinct from the Selectmen. Before that there 
had been prudential committees for each district of the town, and 
this was still kept up. In 1843 the town voted that each school 
district appoint its own prudential committee. 

In 1824 the following money was voted for the schools: to the 
West School $137.69, Lower Falls, $143.31, Upper Falls $22.54, South 
$99.73, Plain, $111.96, Brick $84.88, totalling $600.11. 

In 1836 for the North District $235.92, for the West $216.92, for 
the South $111.17, for Great Plain $133.46, for the Centre $141.70, 
and for the East $100.89, a total of $940. 

In 1843, for the North School $291.07, West $282.50, South, 
$147,46, Plain $204.23, Centre $193.68, Upper Falls, $143.06, a total 
of $1262. In 1850, $337.27 was voted to West School, $335.10 to the 
North, $280.93 to the Center, $211.90 to the East, $213.81 to the 
Great Plain and $203.33 to the South. In that year there were 387 
children in the town from five to fifteen years of age, divided as 
follows: 73 for the North School, 56 for the East, 93 for the West, 
50 for the South, 69 for the Center, and 46 for the Great Plain. 
In 1857 winter graded schools were mentioned. 
A law passed in 1862 by the General Court requiring high 
schools in towns of five hundred or more families resulted in the 
establishing of two in Needham one in the east and one in the west. 
The one in the west was taught alternate half years in Wellesley 

33 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

and Grantville. In Wellesley in Nehoiden Hall, in Grantville in 
Maugus Hall, later the Unitarian Chapel. The school was later 
removed to the building in Grantville erected for a school in 1854, 
which in 1875 was rebuilt and named the Shaw school in honor 
of the donor of the clock, bell and globe, Mr. John W. Shaw. In 
Wellesley the school was removed to the building erected on the 
site of the present Hunnewell school, now Fiske cottage on the 
College grounds, which was bought from the town by Mrs. Joseph 
N. Fiske of Boston and given to the College in memory of her hus- 
band. Very soon however the school took up its abode in the Shaw 
building, moving twice since — to the building on Seaward Place in 
1894 and in 1907 to its present quarters on Kingsbury Street. 

The principals have been T. W. H. Hussey '66 to '67, G. F. Rob- 
inson '67 to '69, A. B. Putnam one term in '69, J. H. Noyes '74 to 
'75, Miss Charlotte Cameron and Miss Julia Jennings '74 to '76, C. E. 
Washburn '76 to '81, F. O. Baston '81 to '86, S. L. Brown '86 to 
1916 and the present principal J. A. Davis 1916. 

A list, of course incomplete, is given of the very early teachers 
copied from the town records. In some cases the time and money 
paid is recorded, more often it is not. Often the teachers boarded 
themselves. 

Dec. 1735, 4£s for keeping school 4 weeks to Francis Very at west- 
erly school house. 

1765 school at Edes House. 

1767 school near Jona. Smith's. 

1767 school near Lt. Fisher's. 

1769 bill to Joseph Drury £s 2 for his wife for keeping school in 
West End two months. 

1769 to Mrs. Mary Newell £ 2-2-8 for keeping school 8 weeks in 

school house near Ephraim Bullard's. 

1770 Hannah Coller kept school near the Metcalf's 
1770 John Butler near Lower Falls. 

1770 Rich. Evans in Westerly part. 

1770 to Ephraim Bullard for boarding and paying Jeremiah Cowell. 

1770 to Lt. Ebenezer Fisher for paying and keeping John Butler. 

1771 to Abigail Fisher for school near Lt. Fisher. 

1770 Robert Fuller, Jr. 3 months at Brick School. 7-4. 

1771 Sarah Pratt Lower Falls 8 weeks. 2-2-8 
1771 Hannah Coller 12 months West School. 2-16 
1771 William Scales 2 months West End 15s 

1771 Widow Cheney Brick 1-12 

1771 Beulah Solemn 8 weeks West 1-17-4 

1772 Widow Martha Denney 3 months West 3. 

1772 Money voted for the Brick School House near Mr. M. Farris. 
1772 William Fuller 5 weeks at Lower Falls 3. 

1772 Hannah Blake 6 weeks & 3 days at Pine Plain at Mr. Leverett 
1-6 
Jonathan Kingsbury at Brick School 1 month & 4 days 2-9-9 
1774 Joseph Kingsbury, Jr. at Lower Falls 

31 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

1784 Joseph Ware West School 10 months 6-15 

1785 Joseph Kingsbury — 14 weeks at Aaron Smith's 
178(3 Dorothy Ware at Brick School £3—12 weeks. 
1787 Samuel Wilson, West School. 

1789 Lydia Drury, West School. 
Robert Fuller, Brick 10 weeks 5-5 
Mr. Holland West 

Eliz. Smith, West 12 weeks £ 3 

1790 Robert Fuller, Brick 10 weeks— 10 £s. 
Sally Townsend, Brick 14 weeks £s 2 

1791 John Hunt, West 

Jona. Kingsbury, Brick £s 6 10 weeks 
Sally Slack, Lower Falls, 10 weeks £s 2 
Sarah Bacon, West 
Lucy Smith, West 

1792 Chloe Felt, Brick £2-8 16 weeks 

1792 Jona Kingsbury, Brick £5-8 

1793 Hannah Deming, Brick 1-13 11 weeks. 

1794 Sally Bacon, West 
1794 Sarah Kingsbury, Brick 

Samuel Cooledge, West 

1794 Gibeon Hooker was paid for room for school in Lower Falls. 

1795 Moses Kingsbury, West 
Sally Bacon, West 

1795 Moses Kingsbury, West 

1795 Robert Fuller, Brick 
Joseph Kingsbury, Brick 
Jonathan Bacon, Jr. West 
Moses Kingsbury, Jr. West 
Sarah Bacon, West 

Sally Greenwood at Pine Plain 

1796 Arthur Train, Lower Falls 

1796 Eunice Keith, Lower Falls £16 12 weeks boarding herself. 

1796 Lucy Kingsbury, Brick £12 12 weeks 

1796 Wm. Leverett, West near church. 

1796 Col. Jonathan Kingsbury, Brick. 

1796 Jona. Bacon, West 

1796 £216 was voted to the prop, of West End School district 

for their school house. 

1797 Ephraim Jackson's wife at his house at Lower Falls. 

A list of more recent teachers who have been or are residents 
of the town includes Mary Jane Dix, Charlotte Sawyer, Abigail Ware, 
Peter Lyon, Hezekiah Fuller, John J. Marshall, Olivia Olmsted, Sol- 
omon Flagg, Jane F. Flagg, Harriet D. Adams, Calvin French, Sarah 
Bird Kingsbury, Emily Kingsbury, Sophronia Kingsbury, L. Allen 
Kingsbury, Charlotte Kingsbury, Marian Russell, Fanny Kingsbury, 
Malvinah Tenney, Mary Tenney, Harriet Sawyer, Sarah Southwick, 
Anna Shurtleff, Eliza Shurtleff, Carrie Dewing, H. A. F. Grant, Mary 
Longfellow, Carrie Rugg, Mary Mason, Jennie Bates, F. O. Baston, 

35 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

C. E. Washburn, Alice Phillips, Edith Phillips, Helen Webster, Mary 
Field, Mary Fuller, Susan Monk, Charlotte Cameron, Nellie Cope, 
Mary Valentine, Seldon Brown, Vina Huzzey. 

Among the books used during the first part of the last century 
were the New Preceptor, Allen's Geography, Colburn's Arithmetic, 
Cumming's Geography and Atlas, Cumming's Spelling Book, Worces- 
ter's Geography and Atlas, Leavitt's Easy Lessons, Walker's Dic- 
tionary, Temple's Arithmetic, Whelpley's Compendium, Woodbridge's 
Geography and Atlas, Adam's Arithmetic, Marshall's Writing Book, 
Olney's Geography and Atlas, Paley's Small Geography, Comstock's 
Philosophy, Blake's Natural Philosophy. 

Bills have been found, showing that various ministers of the 
town visited the schools during the summer, and also took the 
census. 

In 1846 we read of medical inspection in the schools. 

PRIVATE SCHOOLS 

There have been several private schools in the west part of the 
town, one kept by Miss Thayer as early as 1820, and another con- 
siderably later by a Mr. Roberts in the "Murilla Williams house" 
originally owned by Amos Lyon and then opposite Glen Road. An- 
other was kept by W. H. Adams and his wife and sister-in-law Miss 
Pettingill for young ladies and misses. This was from 1848 to 
1852. Sam Pettingill, who later was the first to have an advertising 
agency, was also an assistant. 

The following advertisement copied from the "Christian Wit- 
ness" of Sept. 8, 1837 is a description of a school in the vicinity: 

High School 
at Newton Lower Falls 

The next Quarter of eleven weeks will commence on Wednesday 
20 Sept. The delightful situation healthfulness and quietness of 
the village in which this school is situated the correct and indus- 
trious habits of the people their well-known politeness and 
courtesy to strangers will (it is presumed) serve to attract scholars 
from abroad. Instruction will be given in the branches usually 
taught in our best schools and Academies. Board reasonable. No 
scholars received for less than a quarter without special agreement. 

Terms. 
English branches $6 in advance. 
Latin, French or Greek $1 additional. 
Music $10. Use of piano $2. Daily lesson in singing gratis. 

References. 
Rev. A. L. Baury, Dr. E. Nichols, Messrs. A. C. & W. Curtis, 
Messrs. L. Crehore & B. Neal, and Christian Witness office. 

C. Abbot, Master. 
Newton Lower Falls Aug 27 1837 5w 

36 



WELLESLEY COLLEGE 
The Christian Witness Dec. 28 1838 again advertises— 

The Subscriber being engaged as a teacher at Newton Lower Falls, 
will be happy to receive into his family a few Boys to board and 
instruct in the different branches of the English language. 
Refer to — 

Calvin Park D. D. \ 

Jesse Pierce I Stoughton 

Samuel Tollman ^ 

Rev. T. M. Clark, Boston or 

Rev. A. L. Baury, Newton L F 

Quincy Adams, 

Master 
Dec W 28. 

Miss Farley had a small school in the house near Wellesley Hills 
square now occupied by the Pierson family and owned by Isaac 
Sprague. 

Miss Shurtleff taught in the vestry of the Grantville Congrega- 
tional Church, followed by Miss Emma Fuller. 

But Dana Hall, long in the hands of the Misses Eastman and 
now under the management and ownership of Miss Cooke has long 
had a widespread reputation as a college preparatory and finishing 
school. Originally intended as a part of Wellesley College it soon 
became a school under separate control. The principal building, 
Dana Hall, was the second church edifice in Wellesley, and given 
to the college by C. B. Dana. It was leased by the Misses Eastman 
from the college, but in 1899 was bought by Miss Cooke, who has 
added greatly to the school plant. 

WELLESLEY COLLEGE 

More than passing notice should be paid to the College which 
derives its name from the town. Wellesley College was founded 
by Henry Fowle Durant who was born in Hanover, N. H., February 
20, 1822. He was graduated from Harvard in 1841 and admitted 
to the bar in 1843. In 1854 he married Pauline Adeline Fowle, 
daughter of Col. John Fowle of the United States Army. The death 
of his son at the age of eight years greatly influenced his life and 
turned the direction of his talents to Christian service. In this he 
was most efficiently aided by his wife, who has always proved a 
great helper and friend to the Christian education of young women 
in every class in life. Their decision to found an institution de- 
voted to the higher education of young women resulted in Wellesley 
College which at his express desire does not bear the founder's 
name. 

The College is situated on Lake Waban and its grounds contain 
over three hundred acres of meadow and woodland, with a mile of 
frontage on the lake. 

On August 18, 1871 the first stone was put in the ground and 

37 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

September 14, the corner-stone was laid by Mrs. Durant and the 
structure of the main building was begun. 

The many buildings, the Memorial Chapel, the Library, Music 
Hall, Billings Hall, Stone Hall, the Farnsworth Art Building, the 
cottages on "the hill," the quadrangle with its new dormitories, 
the new gymnasium, and other buildings, including society houses, 
the heating and lighting plants, gardener's house, testify in their 
evidence of expansion to the wisdom and foresight of the founder. 
On September 8, 1875, the main building was opened with 
about three hundred students, and twenty-nine professors and 
teachers. Today there are over fifteen hundred students and nearly 
three hundred officers of instruction and administration. Miss Ada 
L. Howard, the first president, was followed in 1881 by Miss Alice 
Freeman who resigned in 1887 to marry Prof. George Herbert 
Palmer. Her influence and memory are among the richest endow- 
ments of the college. Miss Freeman was succeeded by Miss Helen 
A. Shafer who died in office in 1894. Her presence was gracious and 
dignified and her work of the highest academic value to the col- 
lege. Mrs. Julia Irwin was acting president until succeeded by 
Miss Caroline Hazard who in resigning in 1910 has given place to 
Miss Ellen Fitz Pendleton. 

"Mr. Durant died at Wellesley Oct. 3, 1881, ten years after the 
laying of the corner-stone. From the beginning of the undertak- 
ing his cares had been unremitting, his labors great and incessant. 
With untiring energy he devoted himself day and night to the 
most minute details incident to the foundation and establishment 
of a great seat of learning. Not only during his work of planning 
and construction, but for the six years between the opening of the 
college and his death he gave the whole strength of his soul, mind 
and body to it. The result was inevitable, that so putting his life 
into his college he should lay down his life for it. He had lived 
to see, if not the full accomplishment of his purpose, yet more 
than is given most men to see of the fruit of their labors. He had 
seen an idea dear to him take root, gather material forces around 
it, merge from the darkness, make itself known, recognized, felt, 
a power in the world." 

"Never," says Dr. Howard Crosby, "was any great institution 
more completely the work of one man. To Mr. Durant belongs the 
credit of the plan and the execution as well as the pecuniary gift." 
The endowment and building fund raised after the burning of 
the main building in March, 1914 is the greatest proof of the loyalty 
of its alumnse and the belief of the community at large of its great 
usefulness and future. 

Mrs. Durant died February 12, 1917, after a long life of 
Christian activities. 

WELLESLEY IN THE WARS 

In the French and Indian Wars we find plentiful proof of the 
patriotism and bravery of the inhabitants in the little town and 
records of their help and assistance. 

38 




Welleslky Square before 187 




Wellesley College 
(Main building destroyed by lire, March, 1914] 



WELLESLEY IN THE WARS 

We read of William Chub and Henry Dewing, in Captain Jona- 
than Prentiss' Roll June 24, 1676; of Benjamin Mills in Capt. 
Thomas Brattle's Roll in Service, Aug. 24, 1676, Feb. 9, 1712, a 
Muster Roll of the Garrison posted at Oxford under Sergeant Samuel 
Hay contains accounts of wages to Sergeant John Fisher in care 
of Natick Indians, etc.; also July 22, 1713 another warrant issued 
for 12-12-2 wages to Sergeant John Fisher of Needham. In 1746 the 
town "voted money for ammunition for the present war." There is a 
long list of soldiers in The French War in 1759. Dec. 28, 1764 a 
bill was paid to Alex Shephard of £ 1-2-10 for rent of his house for 
French Neutrals until said neutrals went out of said house. This 
harboring of the French arose from a mandate issued by the colony 
to that effect. 

The trouble with the Indians was not concerned with land as 
much as with the arrogance and dislike shown them by the whites. 
As hostilities advanced Col. Moseley's soldiers, English rather than 
colonists, were more and more brutal and unjust, creating greater 
hatred among the Indians. Many of the Christian Indians, how- 
ever, remained friendly and served as spies and scouts. Forty 
under Nepanet, their Indian captain, were in Captain Henchman's 
company, fought at Hassanamasett — (Grafton) and "proved emi- 
nently faithful and serviceable." As an instance of their assistance 
we read that in April 1675 Waban warned Col. Gookin, who had 
been made superintendent of the Indians of Massachusetts, that the 
Wampawags intended mischief and were only waiting for the trees 
to leave out, — advice which was found to be correct. 

Many of the Natick Indians who had been sent to Deer Island 
were brought back to aid the English and proved faithful and honest. 
The west part of Dedham was not attacked, though Sudbury, Med- 
field and near-by towns were aided by the friendly Indians and 
inhabitants. 

During the trouble with England and the colonies before the 
Revolution we read in the town records in Needham that the town 
put in its warrant an article Dec. 4, 1773, "to see if the Town will 
choose a Committee to join with the Committee of Correspondence 
of the town of Boston Relating to the Importation of Tea." The 
article was not adopted, but the interest was certainly manifested. 
On the 31st day of August 1774 notice was given the Inhabitants of 
the Town of Needham "Met and assembled together who then did 
elect and appoint: 

Captain Eleazer Kingsbury 
Captain Lemuel Pratt 

Mr. Jonathan Dewing \ a committee 

Mr. Samuel Daggett 
Captain Caleb Kingsbury 

to attend a County Convention at the House of Mr. Woodward, Inn 
holder in Dedham, on Tuesday the sixth day of September next at 
ten o'clock before noon, to Deliberate and Determine upon all mat- 
ters as the Distressed Circumstances of the Province maj' Require." 

39 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

Later, Eleazer Kingsbury was chosen Representative to the 
Provincial Congress at Concord on the 2nd Tuesday in Oct. 1774, 
and again Feb. 1, 1775 at Cambridge. William Mcintosh was sent 
to the Congress at Watertown May 31, 1775. 

June 24, 1776 the town voted "to instruct and advise their pres- 
ent Representative that if the Honorable Congress for the Safety 
of the United Colonies declare their independence of the Kingdom 
of Great Britain that they the same inhabitants will solemnly 
engage with their lives and fortunes to support them in ye measure." 
Other interesting entries include the following: Feb. 17, 1777, 
the town voted a sum of money to each man that shall enlist in 
the Continental Army for three years and "to make up to those 
men who have done a term for themselves or part of a term per- 
sonally." Aug. 4, 1777 twenty pounds were voted to each person 
who had gone to "Canady." 

A committee was chosen to take care of the families of the 
Continental Soldiers. 

Oct. 14, 1779, 3,000 pounds were voted in addition to the 4000 
pounds already granted in support of the present war. 

Dec. 27, 1780 it was voted to raise money for beef ordered by 
the General Court. 

3,000 pounds was voted to hire men to fill out their quota. 
In the war Needham took an active part, furnishing three com- 
panies for the battle of Lexington, two coming from the west side. 
Five of the Needham men were killed in the battle, Needham "suf- 
fering more severely than any town except Lexington." Ephraim 
Bullard kept a tavern on the Sherborn Road near the entrance of 
the college and where in 1911 a tablet was erected. "Bullard went 
up on a hill near by, and discharged a gun three times as a signal. 
Great fires were made in the house and bullets moulded, the women 
assisting in the work. The men were supplied and sent off as soon 
as possible. It is said that the West Needham men reached the 
scene of conflict a little in advance of the East Company, having 
received the alarm earlier." 

The following is the list of the names of the men composing 
the West Needham companies: 

"A Roll of Capt. Aaron Smith's Company of militia who 
marched in consequence of the alarrum made on the 19th of April 
last, in the Regiment whereof William Heath, Esq., was then Colonel 
as follows: 

(The figures after the names denote the days served.) 

Aaron Smith, Capt. 15 John Bacon, Sergt., 5. 

Josiah Upham, Ensign 9 Samuel Kilton, Sergt., 5. 

Joseph Daniell, Sergt., 11. Enoch Kingsbury, Corp., 5. 

Jonathan Smith, Corp., 13. Jeremiah Daniell, Corp., 11. 

William Fuller, Sergt., 11. Joseph Drury, Corp., 8. 

Moses Bullard, Lieut., 13. Joseph Mudy, drummer, 10. 

40 



WELLESLEY IN THE WARS 



Privates 



Jona. Whittemore, Jr., 8. 
Isaac Bacon, 8. 
David Trull, 5. 
Lemuel Brackett, 5. 
John Slack, 4. 
John Smith, Jr., 11. 
Joseph Hawes, 14. 
William Kingsbury, 7. 
Timothy Huntting, 12. 
Seth Broad, 9. 
Jonathan Kingsbury, 13. 
Joseph Kingsbury, 13. 
Jonathan Dunn, 9. 
Issachar Pratt, 4. 
Philip Floyd, 8. 
Samuel Mclntire, 2. 
Peter Jenison, 5. 
John Bullard, 5. 
Eliphilet Kingsbury, Jr., 9. 
John Smith, 3rd, 8. 
John Fuller, 4. 
Uriah Coller, Jr., 7. 
Moses Bacon, 7. 
William Huntting, 8. 
Noah Millard, 2. 
Stephen Bacon, Jr., 11. 
Moses Fuller, 9. 
Samuel Brackett, 11. 
Zebadiah Pratt, 6. 

Total amount 



Samuel Baley, 6. 
Daniel Huntting, Jr., 2. 
Moses Daggett, 15. 
Daniel Ware, 10. 
Samuel Daggett, Sergt., 4. 
Benj. Mills, Jr., 14. 
Samuel Pratt, 15. 
Samuel Woodcock, 10. 
Jeremiah Smith, 11. 
Joseph Hawes, Jr., 9. 
Ebenezer Huntting, 9. 
Jeremiah Edes, 8 . 
Moses Huntting, 8. 
Jonathan Huntting, 5. 
Aaron Smith, Jr., 9. 
Amos Edes, 8. 
Samuel Smith, 5. 
Collins Edes, 5. 
Ithamar Smith, Jr., 7. 
Abner Felt, 4. 
Timothy Bacon, 8. 
Solomon Flagg, 5. 
Jos. Kingsbury, Jr., 5. 
Jeremiah Gay, 5. 
Luke Mills, 7. 
Seth Pratt, 7. 
Israel Hunting, 7. 
Samuel Ward, 8. 
Abiel Smith— (Natick) 2. 
£50 7s 2d of. 

Aaron Smith, Capt. 



"Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, Mar. 15th, 1776, Captain 
Aaron Smith, above named, made oath to the truth of the above 
will by him subscribed, according to the best of his knowledge, 
before Samuel Holten, Jus. Peace thro, the Colony." 

"This copy hath been compared with the original thereof and 

agrees therewith. 

Josiah Johnson / ^ 

t tv ( Comm. 

Jonas Dix ) 

"Read and allowed and thereupon ordered, that a warrant be 
drawn on the treasurer, for £50 7s 2d in full discharge of the 
within roll. 

Perez Morton D-Sec'y."' 



"A muster Roll of the Travel and Service of a Company of 
Minute Men in Needham under the command of Caleb Kingsberry, 

41 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

in Col. Davis' Regiment that marched in consequence of the Alarum 
made on the 19th of April, 1775, which is as follows, — viz: 



Caleb Kingsberry, Capt., 2. 
Eleazer Kingsbury, 2nd Lt. 

wounded, 2. 
Samuel Daggett,, Sergt., 4. 
Ephraim Stevens, Sergt., 8. 
Samuel Brown, CorpL, 5. 



Thomas Hall, Corpl., 5. 

John Bacon, 1st Lieut., killed, 1. 

Daniel Gould, Sergt., 5. 

Isaac Underwood, Sergt., 2. 

Samuel Daniell, Cor., 1. 

Ephraim Bullard, drummer, 5. 



Privates 



Ezekiel Richardson, 8. 
Joseph Mudy, 1. 
Josiah Ware, 1. 
David Hall, 1. 
Jacob Parker, 8. 
David Smith, 2. 
Isaac Goodenow, Jr., 15. 
Samuel Greenwood, 2. 
Theodore Brown, 5. 
Nathaniel Kingsbury, 2. 
Amos Mills (killed), 1 
Seth Wilson, 6. 
Henry Gale, 7. 
David Hagar, 6. 
John Fuller 2 

Needham, March 24, 1776. 



Elijah Houghton, 2. 

Jesse Kingsbury, 1. 

Henry Dewing, 7. 

Stephen Huntting, 8. 

Jonathan Smith, 1. 

Moses Felt, 2. 

Thomas Discomb, 4. 

Abijah Mills, 11. 

Josiah Lyon, 2. 

John Edes, Jr., 2. 

Nathaniel Chamberlain, Killed 

Ithamar Smith, 8. 

Nehemiah Mills, Jr., 9. 

Jonas Mills, 7. 



Caleb Kingsberry 



"Colony of the Mass. Bay, March 15, 1776. Captain Caleb 
Kingsberry within named, made solemn oath to the truth of the 
within roll by him subscribed to the best of his knowledge, before 
Samuel Holten, Justice Peace thro' the Colony." 

"Compared with the original and therewith agrees. 

"E. Stark 

"Jno. Turner, Com." 

"Read and allowed and ordered that a warrant be drawn on 
the Treasurer, for 16. IVs lO 1 /^., in full of the within roll. 

"Perez Morton, D. Sec'y." 



The East Company was under the command of Captain Robert 
Smith, in Colonel William Heath's regiment and contained seventy- 
five men, two of whom were killed. 

In 1851 in the old cemetery in Needham a monument was raised 
to the memory of these killed. Upon it is inscribed: 

42 



WELLESLEY IN THE WARS 

In 

Memory 

of 

John Bacon, 

Amos Mills, 

Elisha Mills, 

Jona' Parker 

and 

N. Chamberlain 

who fell 

at 

Lexington 

April 19, 1775 

for 

Liberty they died 

at last. 

Amos Mills was the only man living within the present pre- 
cincts of Wellesley who was killed at Lexington. He lived in the 
place formerly owned by Abijah Stevens on Webster Road.i 

Ephraim Stevens hearing the alarm left his oxen standing in 
the field and went to Lexington. Abel Stevens tells of his grand- 
mother telling him that her mother by putting her ear to the 
ground could hear the firing beyond Sudbury. Ephraim belonged 
to the old Colonial Guards who were ready to fight against the 
British at any moment. 

Lieutenant John Bacon, about whom there seem to be more 
data obtainable than any of the others was buried at Menotomy 
under another name. The day of the fight he must have started 
very early as his horse returned by ten o'clock in the morning. 
He was with Elisha Mills and Christopher Mills behind a stone 
wall when he looked over it, and was shot. His son, John, who 
served throughout the war, went for his clothes the next day and 
discovered them in the schoolhouse. 

The town furnished three hundred men as soldiers in the War 
of the Revolution, — a large percentage of the whole population 
which was then only about one thousand. The community was al- 
ways prompt in raising money to encourage the army, in voting 
bounties to men who should enlist, in sending delegates to provincial 
congresses and in furnishing clothes, food, ammunition, and in car- 
ing for the soldiers' families. 

Needham men fought during the War at the siege of Boston, 
at Dorchester Heights, in Canada and New York, at Castle Island, 
and wherever they were called. 

Joseph Ware, an orderly sergeant and recruiting officer during 
the War, was the author of a journal of the expedition to Quebec 
under Gen. Arnold, 1775-6, and was at the battles of Concord and 
Ticonderoga. 2 

Minute Men were recommended by vote of the town in 1794, 
to be trained in possible anticipation of any outbreak. 

43 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

In 1802 the town paid for its share in a parade at Walpole. 
July 20, 1812, the town voted that those soldiers called out in May 
should be paid, if in actual service. 

In 1815, the town voted that seven dollars a month should 
be paid to soldiers who were detached in 1814. 

The town maintained a powder house, and owned and distributed 
ammunition for several years; but finally voted to sell the house. 

There were very few in actual service during the War of 1812, 
and as they were scattered through various companies it is very 
hard to trace them. 

Sept. 22, 1814, a Company of Exempts was organized with a 
constitution carefully drawn up, in which they declared their al- 
legiance to their country and desire to aid her whenever neces- 
sary. They went with the two militia companies organized about 
1798 to listen to religious exhortation by Stephen Palmer Nov. 17, 
LSI 4, at the East Meeting House. Daniel Ware was captain, Major 
Ebenezer Mcintosh was lieutenant, Lieut. Moses Garfield was en- 
sign, the chaplains were the Rev. Stephen Townsend and the Rev. 
Thomas Noyes, and the surgeon Dr. Isaac Morrill. There were over 
sixty members of the company. On the day of the religious services 
the two militia companies, the East being captained by Elisha Lyon, 
and the West by Jonathan Fuller, paraded and then were joined 
by the company of exempts who showed an excellent training and 
spirit. "Captain Fuller's company carried an elegant standard 
which had been presented by the ladies of the West Parish." 

The history of the town during the Civil War is the Mstory of 
the nation itself— the rising of the younger generation who joined 
the new party often against the wishes and even commands of their 
elders. The great number of men who enlisted and won honor and 
glory, and met bravely sickness, imprisonment and death during 
those four years of horror, testify to the patriotism and loyalty of 
the northern blood equalled only by the southern devotion to their 
own viewpoint. 

The McClellan riot in Maugus Hall stands out as unparalleled 
in the history of the town, (For brief description see page 81.) 

In 1851 the town of Needham put itself on record as opposing 
the fugitive slave law and in 1854 as against the Nebraska bill. 

In 1851 and for subsequent years up to the Civil War, a list 
of the soldiers in the town was recorded. The number the first year 
was 258, and the average was about the same. 

From year to year throughout the war, bounties were granted 
to all men who enlisted, and state aid was given to their families. 
After the war the town voted that a G. A. R. Post be established 
and that land be given by the town for that purpose. 

The Memorial Day address given by Samuel B. Noyes of Milton. 
May 30, 1872, at Needham Plain follows: 

"Some here today may remember the thrill of patriotism which 
stirred you when, at the first town meeting held in Needham to 
consider matters relating to the War of the Rebellion, on the 29th 
of April, 1861, one common purpose seemed to inspire the people. 

44 



WELLESLEY IN THE WARS 

A military committee of four persons was chosen to 'take the gen- 
eral supervision in all matters of detail in relation to forming a 
company in the town, procuring volunteers, providing for the com- 
fort of the soldiers' families and other necessary matters;' and for 
these purposes this committee were authorized to draw upon the 
treasury of the town to the aggregate amount of two thousand dol- 
lars. The gentlemen chosen as this committee were E. K. Whittaker, 
C. B. Patten, Benjamin G. Kimball, and Calvin Perry. 

Eight thousand dollars were appropriated as a war fund, from 
which the Selectmen were authorized to draw money to carry out 
the votes of the town. The Selectmen of the town during the years 
1861, 1862, 1863, 1864 and 1865 were Galen Orr, Silas G. Williams, 
Augustus Stevens. The Town Clerk and Town Treasurer during the 
same years was Solomon Flagg. 

1862, July 24th, Voted to pay a bounty of two hundred dollars 
to each volunteer who enlists for three years, and is mustered in 
and credited to the quota of the town; and the treasurer was author- 
ized to borrow six thousand six hundred dollars to pay the same. 
August 21st, the same amount of bounty was authorized to be paid 
to each volunteer for nine months' service, provided that 'the whole 
quota shall be raised previous to the expiration of the time given 
to raise the men.' (This proviso was reconsidered at the next 
meeting.) The treasurer, under the direction of the Selectmen, was 
authorized to borrow a sufficient amount to pay said bounties. Sep- 
tember 16th, full power was given to the Selectmen to fill the quota 
of the town 'in such a way as they may deem best.' State aid 
was voted to soldiers' families. 

1863, March 2nd. Voted, to pay one hundred dollars to all 
volunteers belonging to that town who had not already been paid 
a bounty, either by Needham or any other place ; also, to the legal 
heirs of those who have died, and an additional one hundred dollars 
where the deceased soldier 'leaves a wife or any children under 
twelve years of age.' 

1864, April 14th, Voted to raise two thousand eight hundred and 
seventy-five dollars to refund money advanced by individuals for 
recruiting purposes, and two thousand two hundred and fifty dol- 
lars were appropriated for bounties. August 4th, the bounty to each 
volunteer enlisting for three years to the credit of the town was 
fixed at one hundred and twenty-five dollars, and so continued to 
the end of the war. 

1865, May 22nd, The Selectmen were authorized to borrow a 
sufficient amount of money to reimburse citizens who had advanced 
money to aid recruiting. 

Needham furnished two hundred and eighty-two men for the 
war, which was a surplus of twenty-three over and above all de- 
mands. Four were commissioned officers. The whole amount of 
money appropriated and expended by the town on account of the 
war was thirty-one thousand eight hundred and twelve dollars and 
thirty-two cents. 

The amount of money raised and expended during the war for 

45 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

State aid to soldiers' families, and refunded by the Commonwealth, 
was as follows:— In 1861, -"5496.81; in 1862, $2,865.37; in 1863, $4,- 
276.30; in 1864, $3,208.16; in 1865, $2,000.00. Total amount, 
$12,846.64. 

The ladies of Needham furnished many comfortable garments 
for the soldiers, and labored in their behalf during the entire 
period of the war. 

These facts and figures, which I have collated from Gen. 
Schouler's invaluable book, 'Massachusetts in the Rebellion,' are, 
in themselves a sufficient eulogy on the patriotism of this little 
town, whose population in 1865 was but 2,793, and whose valuation 
in the same year, 1865, was but $1,798,498. But Needham was not 
alone in patriotic deeds. All over the State, all over New England, 
and over all the free Northern States of the Union, the people were 
animated, inspired, by one common impulse of patriotism. The 
issue was to be decided by the ordeal of war whether the United 
States were a Nation or a collection of independent political com- 
munities. 

You remember with what alacrity the young men from Welles- 
ley and Grantville and Needham Plain responded to the call. Mr. 
Whittaker writes to me from Washington, May 6th, 1872, that the 
movement was very actively seconded by the young men of Grant- 
ville, Wellesley and Needham Plain, while the neighboring villages 
of South Natick and Newton Lower Falls were represented in a 
company which he with Mr. D. D. Dana (Treasurer of the Douglass 
Axe Company) and Mr. Patten (of the Suffolk Bank of Boston) resi- 
dents of Grantville, were appointed a committee to form. 'The 
usual drill practice previous to mustering into the service was vigor- 
ously followed up; but,' he writes, "to my associates on the com- 
mittee much more than to myself belongs the credit of personal 
attendance upon these drills which took place at these villages alter- 
nately." This Company was finally withdrawn from Needham and 
merged in the more extended musterings of the larger towns in the 
county." 

John Monaghan and Patrick Walsh enlisted in the thirty-fifth 
Massachusetts, Monaghan serving from '62 until he was taken pris- 
oner in '64, in which condition he remained until the end of the war. 
Walsh was a British marine who was of great service in training re- 
cruits. He was killed at Antietam and was said to be one of the 
bravest soldiers who went from Wellesley. 

The following is a list of men from Needham who offered them- 
selves for a nine months' service: 

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS 

Needham, August 31, 1862. 
We, whose names are hereunto affixed, severally enlist in a 
Company of Volunteer Militia in Needham and vicinity, subject to 
orders of the Commander-in-Chief and all laws and regulations 
governing the Militia of this Commonwealth, and agreeing to serve 
upon any requisition of the Government of the United States, — 

46 



WELLESLEY IN THE WARS 

issued during the present year, as a militia man, for the term of 
nine months consecutively, if orders therefore shall be issued by 
the Commander-in-chief of the Militia of Massachusetts. 

Joseph E. Fiske, 22; Emery F. Hunting, 23; John W. Greenwood, 
25; Edward Lyon, 18; George Coulter, 24; Harry A. Ambler, 33; Wil- 
liam F. Ambler, 27; John White, 43; Charles R. Severance, 30; 
Newell H. Dadmun, 24; Albert Fuller, 19; Richard F. Boynton, 20; 
John H. Johnson, 18; Cyrus A. Joy, 25; Pliny H. Jones, 25; Samuel 
F. Richards, 23; Horace E. Ambler, 33; Robert Clair, 17; Samuel F. 
Draper, 27; Freeman A. Tower, 22; Joseph H. Dewing, 31; Charles 
F. Wisner, 19; William Hyde, 29; Ezra N. Fuller, 19; Henry Lyon, 
21; Charles E. Belchers, 35; George E. Everett, 16; Joseph Oakes 20; 
John Brimien, 35; William H. McLane, 33; Dennis Crowley, 31; 
Timothy Sullivan, 19; John E. Richards, 34; William H. Morton, 31; 
William Moseley, 29; William F. Alden, 17; Willard H. Hotchkiss, 
21; Israel Hunting, Jr., 39; George F. Palmer, 22; B. F. Fuller, 30; 
Alfred C. Goodnow, 18; John P. Marshall, 38; John Duggan, 26; 
George P. Wisner, 20; John G. Whitmarsh,, 18; Ambrose P. Hatch, 
29; Robert McCloud, 18; Charles Newell, 19; Alvah T. Jones, 18; 
Charles M. Gilder, 18; Sidney A. Johnson, 26; William Bullard, 20; 
Nathaniel L. Tucker, 23; Alonzo Piper, 18; Joseph Griot, 1st, 41; 
James A. Ambler, 20; Rufus B. Curtis, 41; John M. Hanley, 18; 
W. H. Kingsbury, 21; Allen Howland, 34; Richard Boynton, 53; John 
Wakefield, 40; Marshall P. Eayes. 

The list of the town's dead as read year by year en Memorial 
Day follows and is a record, brief but comprehensive of those who 
lived in West Needham, entering various companies for a more or 
less extended service. Their various services are recorded in their 
regimental histories. 

Moses H. Bullard, Co. G, 22nd Mass. Inf., enlisted September, 
1861, killed at Gaines Mills, June 27, 1862. 

Sergt. Henry A. Fuller, Co. I, 20th Mass. Inf., enlisted Dec. 31st, 
1861, died at Salisbury Prison, No. Carolina, Feb. 10, 1865. 

William Fuller, Co. F, 18th Mass. Inf., enlisted July 26, 1861, 
died at Union Chapel Hospital, Washington, Aug. 30, 1862. 

Willard Hunting, Co. A, 39th Mass. Inf., enlisted Aug. 7, 1862, 
died at Salisbury Prison, No. Carolina, Dec. 5, 1864. 

Cornelius Kennedy, Co. F, 40th Mass. Inf., enlisted Sept. 3, 1862, 
missing in action, May 16, 1864. 

Lewis H. Kingsbury, 5th Mass. Inf., enlisted Sept. 16, 1862, dis- 
charged July 2, 1863, died at home, April 23, 1876. 

William H. Kingsbury, 43rd Mass. Inf., enlisted Sept. 24, 1862, 
died in Beaufort, North Carolina Hospital, Mar. 1, 1863. 

Charles E. Peabody, Co. C, United States Engineer Corps, en- 
listed Oct. 4, 1861, death caused by an accident, July 24, 1870. 

W. O. Sawyer, Co. D, 3rd Mass. Heavy Artillery, enlisted Aug. 14, 
1863, died July 21, 1864. 

Charles R. Severance, 56th Mass. Inf., enlisted March 11, 1864, 
killed in action at Bethesda Church, Virginia, May 31, 1864. 

E. Frank Severance, Co. I, 18th Mass. Inf., "The only drafted 

47 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

man in town who responded in person," supposed to have died in 
a rebel prison. 

John G. Shaw, Co. F, 5th Mass. Inf., enlisted July 16, 1864, dis- 
charged Nov. 16, 1864, died at home Sept. 23, 1873. 

Fred J. Simpson, Co. G., 1st Mass. Heavy Artillery, enlisted July 
5, 1861, died in Florence Prison, So. Carolina, Jan. 25, 1865. 

Sergt. Cornelius D. Smith, Co. F, 18th Mass. Inf., enlisted July 
5, 1861, died at his home, Sept. 8, 1864. 

Elbridge Stevens, Co. A, 39th Mass. Inf., enlisted Aug. 7, 1862, 
died at Richmond on his way home from Salisbury Prison, March 5, 
1865. 

Henry Lyon, enlisted in Co. A, 44th Mass. Inf., died at home, 
April 18, 1868. 

Joseph H. Dewing, enlisted Co. C, 43rd Mass. Inf., died at home, 
July 2, 1890. 

Daniel F. Morse, enlisted May 2, 1862, Co. A, 39th Regt. Mass. 
Inf., died at home, Dec. 2, 1890. 

Newell H. Dadmun, Co. A, 44th Mass. Inf., enlisted 1862, died at 
home, Sept. 12, 1901. 

Warren A. Fuller, 1st Lieut. 4th Mass. Cav., enlisted Oct. 12, 

1864. Discharged Nov., 1865, expiration of service. Died at home 
in New Jersey, Aug. 27, 1904. 

John Monaghan, Co. I, 35th Mass. Inf., Aug., 1862. Mustered out 
at end of March. Died Aug. 20, 1884. 

Charles P. Withington, enlisted at Roston, Feb. 3, 1862, on Gun- 
boat Marblehead, discharged Aug. 4, 1863. Re-enlisted Aug. 31, 1864, 
in Co. L, 3rd Mass. Regiment, Heavy Artillery. Discharged June 17, 

1865. Died at home, Sept. 23, 1906. 

Joseph E. Fiske served, 1862, in Co . C, 43rd Massachusetts Vol- 
unteers, captain, 1863, in 2d Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, dis- 
charged at close of war, May 15, 1865. Died Feb. 22, 1909, at home, 
Wellesley Hills. 

Oliver C. Livermore, enlisted July 16, 1861. Captain 13th Regi- 
ment, Massachusetts Volunteers, Co. R, discharged Aug. 1, 1864. 
Died at Wellesley Hills, May 17, 1912. 

Supplementary list of veterans, residents of Wellesley at time 
of death. 

George E. Johnson enlisted at Waltham Sept. 23, 1861, in 1st 
Massachusetts Cavalry, Co. M. Died at YVelleslev Hills, Aug. 18, 
1907. 

Calvin W. Smith enlisted at Dixon, 111., in 1861, in Co. B, 13th 
111. Inf. Died at Wellesley Hills, Sept. 21, 1905. 

George A. Blake, Co. H, 13th Reg. Massachusetts Vol. Enlisted 
July 19, 1861. Mustered out July 1, 1864. Died at Wellesley, Nov. 
11, 1889. 

Henry P. Varney, Corporal, Co. L, 3rd Regiment Massachusetts 
Volunteer Heavy Artillery. Enlisted Aug. 23, 1864. Mustered out 
Sept. 18, 1865. Died at Wellesley, Feb. 16, 1910. 

John Evans, Co. D, 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, enlisted 

48 



WELLESLEY IN THE WARS 

Feb. 27, 1862. Discharged August, 1865. Died at Wellesley, Sept. 
15, 1911. 

Horace Obear enlisted Aug. 15, 1862, Co. 8th Regiment Massa- 
chusetts Volunteers. Discharged Aug. 6, 1864. Died at Wellesley, 
Feb. 13, 1912. 

George H. Robbins enlisted in Co. F, 1st Regiment New Hamp- 
shire Volunteers, May 2, 1861. Discharged Aug. 9, 1861. Enlistment 
and discharge at Nashua, N. H. Re-enlisted at Nashua, N. H., Sept. 
21, 1861, in Co. D Battalion, Engineer in U. S. Army. Discharged 
and mustered out before Petersburg, Sept. 21, 1864. Died at Welles- 
ley, Nov. 24, 1913. 

Abraham Bigelow, 1st Sergeant, enlisted in Co. H, 13th Regiment 
of Massachusetts Volunteers, July 19, 1861. Discharged Aug. 1, 1864. 
Died at Wellesley, Aug. 3, 1914. 

Chester A. Bigelow enlisted in Co. J, 39th Regiment of Massa- 
chusetts Infantry, Feb. 24, 1862. Discharged Feb. 23, 1865, by ex- 
piration of service. Died at Wellesley, March 3, 1915. 

Zibeon H. Gould enlisted in Co. H, 13th Regiment of Massachu- 
setts Volunteers, July 19, 1861. Discharged Aug. 1, 1864, by expira- 
tion of term of service. Died at Wellesley, Sept. 27, 1915. 

The Spanish War was represented by several young men, most 
of whom were not called into active service. Among them were: 
Roscoe Buck in the Marine Corps; Thomas Burnett, Co. C, 5th 
Massachusetts, who died of fever at Chattanooga; Charles S. Cabot, 
also of the 5th; Claude U. Gilson of the 8th; Henry Fuller Lawrence 
in the Coast Artillery Corps; Harry L. Peabody who entered with 
the 7th United States Infantry and was transferred to the 
18th; Edward R. Robson, Co. C, of the 5th; J. F. Whitney, Co. H, 
of the 5th; Guy Bergonzoni of the Naval Militia. 

In this present year (1917) of the Great War, and as this book 
is in press, Wellesley is again giving men and money, to do her 
share in promoting the cause of Democracy. 

1 Rev. Stephen Palmer in his Century Sermon on Nov. 16, 1811, said 
"that was a melancholy circumstance attending the slain, they left five 
widows and nearly thirty fatherless children to mourn their loss." It has 
been said that Needham suffered more on that day — Lexington excepted — 
than any other town in the State. 

2 In 1843 West Needham like other towns in the vicinity during that 
period celebrated Cornwallis Day by a sham battle and the siege and sur- 
render at Yorktown. The affair took place on the vacant land now in- 
cluding Elm, Crotin and Pine Streets, Wellesley Hills. Gen. Charles Rice 
was Lord Cornwallis and Warren Dewing, General Washington. 

The following is a copy of a handbill in possession of the Rice family, 
and loaned by Mi - . Frederick (".. Leslie: 

CORNWALLIS 

The Celebration of the Surrender of Cornwallis will take place at 
Needham on Thursday, (19th inst.). 

Troops of Volunteer Companies belonging to the town, and from the 
neighboring towns, amounting together to about 1,000 will be present. 

The line will be formed near the Depot, at 10 o'clock, precisely; go 
through a few evolutions, and form a hollow scmare, when an ADDRESS, 
appropriate to the occasion, will be delivered by 

49 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

N. P. BANKS, Esq. 

The Army will prepare for action at 2 o'clock p. m. and the move- 
ments arc intended to come as near as practicable to the Surrender of 
Cornwallis, C2 years ago. 

The Committee have the pleasure to state that the 

HON. RICHARD M. JOHNSON 

of Kentucky has accepted an invitation to be present. It is expected that 
Col. Johnson will be escorted to the field of battle by the National Lancers 
of the City of Boston. 

Promptness, Soldier-like attention and decorum are the order of the 
day. 

Charles Rice, 
Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements. 
NEEDHAM, Oct. 17, 1843. 

Andrew G. Prentiss, Printers, 4 Devonshire St. 

The next day the Evening Transcript had the following which had 
been copied from the Post. 

THE CORNWALLIS SHAM FIGHT 

The contemplated military spectacle of a sham fight came off at Need- 
ham yesterday in grand style. The weather cleared off beautifully about 
1.00 o'clock and full 500 volunteers assembled on the field. The British 
(for the day) were commanded by Gen. Rice, and the Americans by Col. 
Dewing. There were companies from Brighton, Dedham, Needham, and 
Natick. Col. Johnson and suite, consisting of Col. Macomber, Col. Hol- 
brook, and Col. Mitchell came on to the ground in a barouche, and Col. 
Johnson was eloquently addressed by E. K. Whi taker, Esq., chairman of 
the committee of arrangements appointed to welcome him. He was also 
addressed on the part of the military, by N. P. Banks, Esq., and to whom 
he replied with great feeling and simplicity of manner, and he was evi- 
dently much affected by the warm reception he met with. During the 
sham fight, a spectator had his arm broken in a scuffle, and this was the 
only accident or unpleasant occurrence on the battlefield. 

A program For July 4, 1859, reads: "The anniversary of the Declara- 
tion of Independence will be celebrated at the North District School House 
by permission of the school committee in the following manner. Marshall 
of the Day, Mr. C. B. Patten. Order of Exercises, I Prayer, II Reading of 
Declaration of Independence by Mr. I. I. Leslie, III Music by the children 
of the School ; Song and chorus in which all are requested to join — 'O 
Columbia the Gem of the Ocean' (3 stanzas). IV Oration by Rev. E. S. 
Atwood. V Poem prepared for the occasion by Mr. J. L. Fairbanks. 
VI Music. Song and chorus in which all are requested to join. 'My 
country, 'tis of tliee' (4 stanzas). To commence at 5 o'clock p. m. 

Fireworks will be displayed from Meeting House Hill by consent of 
Gen. Charles Rice, near the corner of Rice's Crossing Road as soon after 
dark as possible." 

In March, 1875, the town chose a committee consisting of Warren 
Dewing, Solomon Flagg and George K. Daniell to arrange in reference to 
the centennial celebration at Lexington and Concord. The Needham dele- 
gation was in the eighth division of the Lexington celebration, Gen. Wil- 
liam Coggswiil. chief. The delegation was mounted, under Joseph E. 
Fiske, marshall. There were one hundred men, attended by the Needham 
Band and the Highlandville Cornet Band. Post 21 G. A. R. sent thirty 
men. Gov. Gaston and Chief Justice Gray were among the speakers. 



OLD FAMILIES 

The historical associations with the name of Wellesley are 
numerous and interesting, and embrace the most important events 
in American history. Andrew Dewing, probably the first settler in 
the town, was the ancestor of soldiers in the Revolution and the 
Civil War. 

The Fullers, always one of the most influential families of the 
place, claim their origin from Thomas Fuller (a member of whose 

50 



OLD FAMILIES 

family early built a house near the town line), a representative to 
the General Court as early as 1686, whose son was wounded in the 
Narraganset War, and whose descendants were conspicuous in the 
earlier and later wars and in civil life, — William and Henry A. 
serving in the war of the Rebellion. 

The Wares, another well-known family, have always had their 
representatives in church, town and military matters, one of whom 
left a very valuable journal of his journey to Quebec under Arnold 
in 1776. 

The Kingsburys, descendants of Joseph Kingsbury of Dedham, 
furnished one of their number as captain of a company which 
fought at the battle of Lexington, and a noble child of the house, 
William H., died in the Civil War, while Dexter held town offices 
for many years. 

The Mills, one of whom was killed (and the only one living 
within the limits of Wellesley who was killed) in the Lexington 
fight, and the Smiths freely represented in the Revolutionary and 
Rebellion contests: — Daniel, the first deacon of the West Needham 
Church, represented in all places of honor and works, with a female 
ancestor captured and scalped by the Indians, and the last with us 
well-known as moderator and assessor; the Flaggs, synonym for 
town office; Fiskes, residents of the Leg and builders of some of our 
old homes, Emery serving as delegate to the convention for revising 
Hie Constitution of Massachusetts in 1853, Joseph E., the last in the 
male line, for many years selectman, school committee and mod- 
erator, captain of artillery in the Civil War; the Stevens, faithful 
and true, one of whom, Elbridge, died in Libby Prison at Richmond; 
the Slacks, owners of an immense tract of land in the lower part 
of the town, the last generation represented by Capt. C. B. Slack in 
the war of the Rebellion; the Lyons, eminent as manufacturers and 
farmers, with two of the family on the muster roll of the Forty- 
fourth Massachusetts Regiment; the Huntings, descendants of John 
Hunting, the first elder of the Dedham Church, three of the last 
generation in the Civil War, — Willard dying in prison; all these 
have done their share in honest, faithful work to enhance the repu- 
tation of their town and make the world better for having lived 
in it. 

In St. Mary's churchyard, at Newton Lower Falls, are buried 
members of the Lyon, Pratt, Daniel, Rice, Hoogs families. In 
Needham Cemetery, clustered around their minister, waiting for the 
call for the last congregation lie the Slacks, Daniels, Wares, Kings- 
burys, Fullers. 

In Wellesley Village are still gravestones of the Noyes, Smith, 
Stevens, Fuller, Kingsbury families.i 

Of later names, though none natives of the place, but of whom 
the town has good cause to be proud are those known beyond our 
limits, in literary, artistic and scientific circles. 

Among them should be mentioned Isaac Sprague of the past 
generation (1811-1890), the illustrator of Grey's Botany, a friend 
and collaborator of Audubon. 

51 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

Graham Bell lived at the Falls at about the time of his inven- 
tion of the use of the telephone. 

The Denton brothers are known throughout the world as natu- 
ralists, reproducers of the original colors of fish and birds and in- 
ventors and manufacturers of "butterfly jewelry." 

Mary B. Hazleton, declared by Sargent and others to be the fore- 
most woman portrait painter in America, has painted very beautiful 
mural decorations for the Hills Congregational Church. 

W. L. Taylor is well known as an illustrator, his work appearing 
in the Ladies' Home Journal and other journals. 

Of our literary talent the most noted are Gamaliel Bradford, 
whose "Portraits of Union Generals" and "Confederate Generals" 
are perhaps best known, and Katherine Lee Bates, a long-time 
resident, and now Professor of Literature at Wellesley, who has 
written many books on Spain and some very charming verse. 

1 C. C. Greenwood's and G. K. Clarke's various books on "Epitaphs" 
contain much genealogical matter. 

THE TOWN FARM 

Needham, April 14, 1828. 

The town being met (for the express purpose) on an adjourn- 
ment from the first Monday in April. Proceeded as follows. Viz. — 
It was put to the vote of the town to see if they would accept of the 
report of their Committee: the report being in favor of purchasing 
the farm improved by the Widow Emily Kingsberry and belonging to 
Mr. John Welles of Boston, and it passed in the affirmative. The 
town voted to choose a committee to receive a Deed of Mr. John 
Welles in behalf of the town of the aforesaid farm — and Capt. Jona 
Gay, Benjm Slack, Esq., and Mr. Moses Garfield were chosen their 
committee. The place was bought for $2,550. 

The town voted that this committee be chosen to prescribe rules 
and regulations respecting their poor house and Gen. Charles Bice, 
Aaron Smith, Esq., and Artemus Newell, Esq., were chosen their 
committee. 

The town voted that the overseers of the poor take charge of 
the farm bought for the poor. 

This Meeting Dissolved. 

Asa Kingsbury, 

Town Clerk. 

The building was insured in 1830. 

The poor of the town were therefore cared for in one building 
and not boarded out as had been the custom. Another problem was 
also solved concerning the best place for town meetings, which were 
now held in a hall which was built on the first floor. For several 
years the plan had been tried of meeting alternately in the East and 
West Meeting Houses, varied by meeting at Col. William Mcintosh's 
or Bullard's Tavern. But having acquired a place for their poor and 
for general meetings the farm seemed to be a white elephant, hard 
to handle. For years almost every town meeting voted a committee 

52 



THE TOWN FARM 

to consider selling it and building a smaller house. Each year a 
committee reported on the condition of the inmates. 

But previous to this decision and purchase by the town Dover 
had written to Needham and other surrounding towns to see if they 
would not join together and purchase a farm which could be used 
by all in common. 

In 1835 the town voted that "the Selectmen shall purchase a 
bathing tub that shall be kept at the Almshouse under their care." 

In the same year a petition was presented to be incorporated 
into the town warrant "to see if the town will vote to prohibit ar- 
dent spirits being furnished by the overseers of the poor for the use 
of their paupers at the expense of the town." 

November 11, 1833, a road was accepted from the Almshouse to 
Wellesley village at Noyes' Corner (Wellesley Ave.). 

In 1837 the town voted that the selectmen and Daniel Ware 
prescribe rules and regulations for the Inmates of the Alms House. 

April 3, 1838, a building committee of Jabez Smith, Dexter Ware 
and Spencer Fuller were "chosen to take down and dispose of the 
old almshouse and move out-buildings to accommodate the new 
almshouse." Voted that "the care of the town hall be in the care 
of the keeper of the almshouse, under the direction of the Selectmen 
and also that it may be occupied for public, political and other civic 
meetings, that the town provide lamps for the town hall and those 
that appoint meetings in said hall are to furnish oil for the same." 
In rebuilding the house Mr. Pickering, the contractor, made the shed 
of material from the original Kingsbury barn. The town met at the 
hall November 12, 1838, and a committee was chosen to take down 
and dispose of the old almshouse and move the out-buildings to 
accommodate the new almshouse. 

In 1859 we find that Dexter Kingsbury bought the "vane and 
fixtures for $15." 

During the middle of the century the town reports place the 
value of the Town Farm and Buildings at $8,500 and the Personal 
Property at $3,000. In 1872 a smallpox hospital was built at an 
expense of $558.87, the appropriation being $1,200. In 1873 further 
work was done on it to the extent of $398.47, still leaving a little 
of the appropriation. The same year the detailed smallpox account 
amounted to $683.21 for the patients. In 1873 the Lockup was built 
at an expense of $678.43, the appropriation being $1,000. 

In 1871 the report asks for a larger hall and a suggestion is 
also offered that a cemetery be placed on land southeast of the Town 
house. 

In 1874 "pursuant to a vote of the town your Selectmen have 
caused certain alterations in, and additions to be made to the Town 
Hall building. The accommodations now are ample and convenient 
for town purposes. The main hall is 73x34 feet, with a room for 
the Selectmen 14x19, and another for the School Committee 14x14; 
these two rooms are arranged with folding doors, so that if neces- 
sary they will form one larger room 14x34. The work was done by 
contract as nearly as was consistent with remodelling and repairing 

53 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

old work. As the work progressed many changes were found neces- 
sary, which could not be brought into the estimate, as they had to 
conform to the frame and plan of the old building." 

The following is a statement of the cost of the work:— 

By Cash paid — 

J, M. Harris, for plan of Town Hall building. . $ 15.00 

J. E. Cloyes, for underpinning stone 98.49 

Jno. Fuller, for laying cellar-wall 231.52 

J. H. Fitzgerald, for rods in hall 60.00 

Gardner Chilson, for ventilators in hall 16.00 

Dennett. Bliss & Jones, for paper for anterooms 5.20 

W. D. Parlin, for paper for house 12.31 

Fawcett, Hawkes & Co., for two furnaces 439.22 

Oliver Pickering, on contract 6,323.00 

Oliver Pickering, for extras 1,003.63 

A. M. Mace & Co., for lead pipe and plumbing 

for pump and sink 11.37 

Wisner & Edwards, for papering and painting, 

extra 81 .64 

E. Peabody, furniture in house 55.00 

New England Carpet Co., for carpets in house 88.80 
Goldthwait, Snow & Knight, for carpets for 

anterooms 57.15 

Stephen Smith & Co., for desks, bookcase and 

tables for hall and anterooms 119.00 

W. O. Haskell & Co., for settees for hall 215.00 

Tucker Manufacturing Co., lamps for hall and 

building 69.81 

Walter Bowers, for rebuilding lockups 205.98 



?9,109.27 



These items have been charged as follows: — 

To original appropriation for alterations, 

Town Hall building $6,500.00 

Additional appropriation made at town meet- 
ing, December 30 1,500.00 

Returned from the State on account of small- 
pox bills and State Poor, and expended for 
the comfort of the poor in heating, paint- 
ing, papering, furnishing and incidentals, 
which would not properly belong to altera- 
tions in Town Hall 763.20 

Unexpended balance of lockup appropriation 
made last year 321.57 

Miscellaneous 24.50 

S9.109.27 
54 



THE TOWN FARM 

The town report for 1878 stated that the "building known as the 
'smallpox hospital' has been moved to within a few feet of the main 
building— the former location being so remote that the warden could 
not properly look after it. The building has been used chiefly, 
since the main building was repaired, as a lodging place for tramps, 
who after receiving a night's lodging, would frequently show their 
gratitude by stealing the blankets, etc., sometimes soiling and dis- 
figuring the building, and even going so far as to attempt to burn it, 
the insurance companies refusing to insure it in its old location." 

The town report for Wellesley, 1881, says: "Immediately after 
the incorporation of the town we made a contract with the over- 
seers of Needham to board their poor for the year ending March 
31, 1882, at two dollars a week. While this price seemed at the 
time to be sufficient, the great advance in most all kinds of pro- 
visions has proved it entirely inadequate, and should we board 
them the coming year we should feel obliged to charge more. . . . 
The question of selling the farm is a matter which should be care- 
fully considered. It is very apparent that if the farm could be 
sold for a sum approximating to the amount allowed Needham for 
her half and the money placed at interest (besides getting so much 
more taxable property) it would be economy to do so, and make 
other arrangements for our poor." 

In 1882 the valuation of the Town Farm and buildings was 
placed at $14,000.00, and the personal property at the town farm 
at $2,840.00. 

September 17, 1883, a portion of the land was sold to Josiah 0. 
Abbott for $3,501.80. 

In 1910 the Farm was leased to the Country Club Corporation. 

The following men served as keepers or wardens of the town 
farm from the time it was bought until it was given up in 1910. 
For several years previous, carrying on the farm was costing the 
town far more for maintaining its poor than was necessary. The 
keepers were always married and their wives proved of great as- 
sistance to them. After 1880 the words warden and matron were 
used in describing the work done. For the first thirty or forty 
years of the existence of the farm, the wardens were generally 
the liquor agents of the town and rendered their account to the 
selectmen. 

Israel Whiting, May 19, 1828-April 25, 1832; Benjamin Fuller, 
April 25, 1832-April 25, 1833; Joseph Newell, April 25, 1833-April 
10, 1834; Daniel Ware, April 9, 1834-April, 1838; John Kingsbury, 
April, 1838-April, 1841; Jacob Hardon, April, 1841-September 17. 
1841; Alvin Fuller 2d, September 17, 1841-April 1, 1845; John Kings- 
bury, April 1, 1845-April 1, 1846; James Smith, April 1, 1846-1851; 
G. E. Byington, 1851-March, 1852; Ezekiel Peabody, March, 1852- 
March, 1859; Dexter Kingsbury, March, 1859-March, 1867; Benjamin 
Joy, March, 1867-March, 1872; D. A. Warner, March, 1872-March, 
1873; Ezekiel Peabody, March, 1873-March, 1884; I. T. Swift, March, 
1884-1888; Philip Atwood, 1888-1890; George W. Whitten, 1890- 
1892; C. E. Davis, 1892-1893; W. E. Woodward, 1893-March 1, 1895; 

55 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

Theodore Bolser, March 1, 1895-March 1, 1898; George H. Twombly, 
March 1, 1898-April 1, 1904; George W. Martin, April 1, 1904-April 1, 
1905; George H. Twombly, April 1, 1905-September 1, 1907; Arthur 
B. Tnll, September 1, 1907- 

The Town Farm was discontinued in 1910. 

(When exact dates are known they are given, otherwise the 
month was probably March.) 



TAVERNS AND OLD HOUSES 

In Elm Park, Wellesley Hills, was the old hotel of that name 
once called the Needham Hotel. It has generally been known by the 
names of its various owners or occupants. In 1811 Calvin Fisk is 
recorded as owning it and adjacent land. In 1824 John Sargent 
(who married Abigail Ware) and Nathan White were proprietors. 
It was called Shepherds' from 1840 to 1847 and later Crafts'. In 
1849 it is spoken of as the Grantville Temperance House. Mr. 
and Mrs. Leland kept a school there as well as a tavern. Philena 
Tenney was a later landlord. The owners and landlords were not 
always the same people. 

The county records give deeds as follows: April 12, 1808, land 
was sold to David Stone and Calvin Fisk who probably built the 
tavern; December 4, 1812, Fisk as mortgagor to Jeremiah Gore and 
John Harris; Ephraim Billiard, Sheriff sold to Timothy Daniels; 
the Daniels estate held the property until 1834, when it was sold 
to John W. Slack,i who was granted a license as a taverner to sell 
liquors. Nathan White and John Sargent held an interest in it 
which they sold out to Marshall Spring of Watertown. Mary Spring 
for the estate sold it in 1845 to Daniel Stone, who in 1851 sold to 
Benjamin I. Leeds, who sold to L. Allen Kingsbury, who sold it 
to Timothy Hancock in 1857, who in 1867 sold to Charles Newhall 
who sold it to John W. Shaw. 

The last owners and occupants were the Shaw and Livermore 
families in whose day (1908) it was bought both through private 
subscription and by the town and torn down and the land made a 
public park. 

The row of old elms which were right at the door indicates with 
what a flourish the old stage coaches used to drive up to the very 
doorstone. Up to 1860 there was a road from the hotel to the 
Grantville Depot between Washington Street and Worcester Turn- 
pike. 

Hoogs' Tavern, owned and conducted by five-fingered George 
Hoogs, was situated at Newton Lower Falls just beyond the present 
railroad crossing on the northeast corner. It was burned in 1905. 
Hoogs lived in the house next to the tavern with the pillars in 
front, now a tenement house. 

Wales' Tavern was beyond the river at the junction of Wales 
and Washington Streets. 

In Wellesley village Blanchard's Tavern was on the main thor- 

56 




Looking East 





SHEBBBHE 










^^^^S^H 




|W5((^ - 






R 


■ ■ 







P/in/n? &y .-l/'..r( .<?/. n.i;V 



Looking West 



Wellesley Hir.r.s Square 
(Before 1900) 



TAVERNS AND OLD HOUSES 

oughfare, but is now practically hidden by the Partridge Block 
which has been erected in front of it. 

The A. B. Clarke house, on the corner of Washington and 
Church Streets, once owned by Flagg, was formerly a tavern. Sol- 
omon Flagg's father — also a Solomon — kept it as a tavern for a short 
time. He married Esther Brown whose sister Betsy left $5,000 to 
the West Needham Church. The Betsy Brown house, an old black 
house, formerly standing near the A. P. Dana home, was built by a 
Dewing and bought by Mr. Samuel Brown about seventy years after 
it was built. He built the north end. The chimney in the old 
house was built on the outside. Mr. Brown was a Methodist, at- 
tending the church in the Hundreds. He was a town officer, filling 
various capacities for many years. Eben Flagg's house on Central 
Street was once also a tavern — Crockett's. 

The building first used by the Unitarian Society was Maugus 
Hall, originally a freight house. Its last use is the dwelling of 
John Croswell, who also bought the old Congregational Church which 
he used for a barn. This was afterwards burned. During the early 
sixties Maugus Hall was called the Wigwam, and used as a paint 
shop by one Bedoe. It was the scene of the McLellan riot during 
war times, when "secesh" and war advocates made it very lively. 
Report had it that during the excitement of the meeting people were 
thrown out of the windows. But Mr. Atwood, the minister, re- 
minded the over zealous press that, there being no windows, such 
a thing was not probable. 

For several years it was owned by the Maugus Hall Association 
and was the only meeting place in the village for social gatherings. 

The Dewing garrison house, built as early as 1656, was the 
first house, as far as is known, that was built within the present 
precincts of Wellesley. Its site is believed to have been on Grove 
Street at about the entrance to the Baker place, and opposite the 
G. E. Alden estate. 

Here, more than two centuries later, William Emerson Baker, of 
sewing machine fame, bought in 1868 from Payson Pierce, Daniel 
Ware and others, well cultivated farms containing about 820 acres, 
and developed a very wonderful place of entertainment. He called 
it Ridge Hill Farm, and built a house for his family which with 
the various other buildings on the grounds often housed several hun- 
dred people. His grotto, stable, fountains, zoological museum, an- 
tiques, and numerous entertainments are among the unique re- 
membrances of those who were fortunate enough to have seen 
them. 

Although most of the property is in Needham, the Wellesley 
station was always used for visitors. It is said that when the town 
was divided Mr. Baker asked to be set off in a borough by himself, 
but the General Court did not see fit to grant his request. Hotel 
Wellesley was built by him, and was carried on as a high class 
hostelry for some years until it was burned in the '90's. 

In Wellesley village we find that during the earty days of the 
Civil War the minister, A. R. Baker, who built and lived in the 

57 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

house now occupied by H. L. Rollins, was a believer in slavery, and 
suspected of being friendly to the South. Many of his parishioners 
objected, and a threat was made to raise the Union colors at his 
house, but when the eventful day arrived, the only result was an 
earnest promise on the part of Major J. W. Wright (then living in 
the house now owned by Mrs. Simonds) the ringleader, that the com- 
munity would protect him in the future. The affair still lingers 
joyfully in the memory of those who were boys at the time, and 
sat on the fence, fearfully, but hopefully, looking for bloodshed. 

Mr. Baker's wife under the name of Aunt Hattie, wrote stories 
for children. The house was on the site of a smaller one owned by 
Deacon Hezekiah Fuller, who for a short time boarded a former 
minister, Mr. Sessions and his family. Before building his house 
Mr. Baker had lived in the house now occupied by A. P. Dana. 

Captain Aaron Smith's house in the college ground back of the 
greenhouses is a very old house and was built before the Revolu- 
tion. 

Parson Noyes' house was on the cellar hole which may still be 
seen behind the clump of lilacs east of the Town Library. This 
house was later owned by Dr. W. T. G. Morton, the first permanent 
user of ether as an anesthetic, and lived in by his parents. The 
house was burned during their occupancy. Dr. Morton lived in 
the house now further east which was then on the library site. 
This was built by him in 1845, the year before he began to use 
ether. He manufactured teeth here, employing women for the work. 
His grounds were very extensive, reaching west across the tracks. 
In a time when farming was not as much of an avocation for gen- 
tlemen as it is now he carried on a large farm, and is said to have 
first introduced the Jersey cow into America. 

"In 1850 the agricultural society of Norfolk County in which 
Etherton Cottage is situated was instituted by the Hon. Marshall P. 
Wilder and others who were personal friends of Dr. Morton. . . . 
The premiums awarded to Dr. Morton at different times by the 
State and Norfolk County Agricultural Societies not only bear wit- 
ness to his own superiority of culture but to the necessity for 
science in this primitive vocation; in fact there is no pursuit which 
recmires more scientific investigation. West Needham, the home 
of Dr. Morton, notwithstanding its poor prosaic name, is really a 
pretty pastoral-looking place surrounded by low wooded hills, pro- 
tecting as it were the fine farms and orchards, and the pleasant 
dwellings everywhere seen in the valleys and on the uplands 
around. In twenty minutes after leaving the hustle of Boston, if 
the cars make good speed, you will reach this rural scene, where 
Nature still holds her quiet way, except when the steam-horse goes 
snorting and thundering by." ("Trials of a Public Benefactor, as 
illustrated by the discovery of Etherization," by Nathan P. Rias, 
M.D. Published 1859.) 

The postmaster, Alvin Fuller, 2d, lived in the house now occu- 
pied by W. W. Diehl which then stood on the corner of Washington 
and Forest Streets. Another residence of the Fuller family in the 

58 



TAVERNS AND OLD HOUSES 

same vicinity was the Phillips house where Alvin was born. It was 
bought by Freeman Phillips in 1868 of Mrs. W. B. Tappan, and had 
been occupied by Solomon Flagg, by the parents of A. R. Clapp as 
well as by various members of the Fuller and Withington families. 

One of the most travelled houses in town has been owned and 
lived in by W. H. Adams, Deacon Batchelder, the E. H. Stanwood 
family and now by R. W. Babson. Its original position was about 
where the Wellesley Hills statioa now stands; later it was moved 
across to the present entrance of Abbott Road; again to the junc- 
tion of Abbott Road and Maple Street (now Seaward Place), and 
finally and presumably to its last resting place on Abbott Road. 
W. H. Adams kept a school there, where his brother-in-law, Sam 
Pettingill (later the head of the first advertising agency) was of 
great assistance to him. It was also the place where the early 
meetings of the Grantville Congregational Society were held. Dea- 
con Batchelder's land extended to what is now Rockland Street 
which he used as a cow pasture. This land formerly belonged to 
the Kingsburys and a house was on this land which may have been 
the original Kingsbury house. In 1814 there was a tremendous 
gale and the wheat fields of the Kingsburys' which extended from 
what is now Abbott Road to Wellesley Hills Square were com- 
pletely demolished. Barns and houses were destroyed and the loss 
of property was very great. Joseph Kingsbury owned the property 
at this time. 

The house now lived in by Dr. Hazelton and his family was 
directly on the Sherborn Road, with the row of elms lining the road 
directly in front of the house, the road passing through the present 
lawn of the Unitarian Church. This house was at one time a part 
of the Batchelder property and is now owned by A. R. Clapp. It 
is one of the oldest houses in town, and is said to have been built 
by the brother of the leader of the Boston Tea Party, if leader there 
was. 

The house now owned and lived in by Richard Cunningham 
was built by Hezekiah Fuller for the first minister of the Grant- 
ville church, Harvey Newcomb. The land was owned by Dexter 
Ware and was lot No. 1, being a square lot reaching up on to 
Maugus Hill. 

The house on the west side of Washington Street in Wellesley 
Hills Square, owned by George Dexter Ware, has been in this 
branch of the family for years. It was built by George Hoogs, 
cousin of the one who kept the tavern at the Falls, and is a very 
good example of the old New England style of village architecture. 
Ware and Wilder's store was here for several years. The long, low 
narrow building formerly standing next to it was the home of Mary 
Jane Dix and her mother, and later it was used as a store by Mr. 
A. R. Clapp's father, the Huntings, Seawards, Rowells and others. 
It was torn down about thirty years ago. 

Back of these buildings where the waterworks and railroad are 
now was a good sized pond, almost a lake in size. 

The small, white house, also belonging to the Ware estate, was 

59 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

once a blacksmith's shop, owned by Frank Daniels, who lived in 
the present home of Dr. Hazelton about 1825. His wife was the 
aunt of Miss Dix, the first wife of L. Allen Kingsbury. 

Other existing Ware houses are the Reuel Ware house built by 
Daniel Ware on Brook Street, now owned by Robert H. Monks; the 
Captain Reuben Ware house on Walnut Street, now owned by the 
Millers; and Mr. Sheridan's at the junction of Oakland Street and 
Brookside Road, where across the road, tradition says, is the old 
spring used by Maugus. This is probably part of property which in 
1833 the town of Needham sold to Isaac Keyes. The deed records 
thirteen acres on Worcester Turnpike, and, no doubt, is part of the 
land deeded by Ephraim Ware to the Needham Parish. (These 
Wares are buried in the Needham Cemetery.) 

The "Ryan house" on the corner of Washington and Oakland 
Streets was built and owned by the Daniells family who owned 
land in West Needham as early as 1720. Ephraim Daniells, who 
died in 1784, was born in 1744, and is spoken of as living in the 
homestead. This is probably the house, though it is known that 
many alterations have been made. The barn on the Fuller place 
on the corner of Woodlawn Avenue belonged to the Daniells family 
and was across Washington Street opposite the house. In 1833 
George K. Daniell married Hannah Adams, the adopted daughter of 
Moses Grant and the daughter of Amasa and Mary (Adams) Fiske 
of Medfield and a niece of Miss Hannah Adams, the "historian of 
the Jews." Moses Grant lived in the house on the southwest corner 
of Worcester and Oakland Streets, now moved back. Later owners 
of the Ryan house have been the Colburns and William Heckle. 
During the latter ownership Hugh McLeod lived in it. The Ryan 
house as well as the Sheridan house is in an excellent state of 
preservation, and will doubtless continue so, as their owners take 
great pride in them and their history. 

In 1804 Enoch Fiske built the present Fiske homestead for his 
son, Isaiah, and a little earlier for himself the old house on the 
Sisters' school grounds on Oakland Street, once owned by Ellery 
Clarke, whose mother was Harriet Kingsbury. The property was 
known as the Hollis place, previously to that as the Scudders'. The 
Scudder house itself was built by John Bird and was much smaller, 
but has been added to by its various owners. Marshall Scudder 
was an active citizen of the town and was superintendent of the 
Grantville Congregational Sunday School for many years. 

Lieut. John Ness probably had a house a little north of the 
Fiske homestead in the eighteenth century. He was moderator of 
the third meeting held in the West Precinct, April 10, 1775. 

A later house, now owned and lived in by General Ward, was 
formerly known as the Bancroft place and was built by their uncle, 
John Bird. Mr. E. C. Chapin was the carpenter, and he also erected 
the "Austen" place for himself, later occupied by the Farleys and 
now by the Pierson family and owned by Isaac Sprague. 

The house on the southeast corner before crossing the railroad 
track at Newton Lower Falls, was bought by Charles Rice, March 

GO 



TAVERNS AND OLD HOUSES 

29, 1817, from Lemuel Pratt. In early days Washington Street was 
very much narrower at this point, the house being further back 
from the road. "Near the left front of the house steps led down 
the bank to a sunken garden, the paths were box-bordered, and 
beds filled with old-fashioned flowers. The side hill was covered 
with peach trees, and in the spring the blossoming trees made a 
wonderful picture against the hillside. Before the building of the 
railroad a small pond of sparkling water, fed by springs, occupied 
the place of the road to the freight house from Washington Street." 

At that time the Pratt house stood further up on the opposite 
side of the street, just in front of the French-roofed house next 
the Catholic church. It was moved to its present position on 
Ledyard Street, between 1831 and 1836. The Pratt estate previous 
to 1828 contained about one hundred and thirty acres. 

Another house owned by General Rice is the one near the river 
on the corner of River and Washington Streets. When owned by 
him it had a large hall in the third story, the ceiling was arched 
and painted with moon and stars, and Masonic emblems. The 
local lodge met here. It is now owned by James A. Early. 

The small house next C. H. Spring's grain office and at the en- 
trance to the Falls railroad station is the house where Francis 
Blake lived, the assistant of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor 
of the telephone transmitter. 

The house where Miss Murilla Williams lived, formerly op- 
posite St. John's Church, now further back on the lot, had "two 
rooms in front, down stairs box entry, sloping roof, enormous fire- 
places, brick oven, two good upright chambers, in one of which a 
private school was kept by a Mr. Roberts, accessible by an outside 
staircase; there was a kitchen and inner room, old cinnamon roses 
in front and lilacs behind the house." 

The Sturtevant house built in part by Perceval Chubb has been 
lived in by Amos Allen, Peter Parker, the Fairbanks and others. 
The rear is very old. 

The house now owned by A. S. Tucker, was built before 1775, 
probably by Renjamin Slack of Roxbury, as a place of refuge for 
his family in case of war or pestilence. At the alarm of Lexington 
the family fled through the wilderness of Rrookline (Muddy River), 
where they hid as British troops marched by. Mr. Slack, leaving 
his family in charge of his son Benjamin, went on to the battle 
accompanied by his oldest son John. This house at the lower end 
of Walnut Street, is one of the oldest in the community. It has 
bad various additions, probably being at first but a four-room 
house. An addition was built on about 1840, intended for the use 
of Mr. Slack's sister. The barn, burned in 1915, was built in the 
early part of last century, and probably replaced a much older one. 

The land between Walnut Street and Washington belonged to 
this family whose daughter Clarissa married Parson Noyes' son 
Edward. Later much of it was purchased by William Heckle. The 
older son John owned a large tract of land in Weston, most of 
which is now the property of Charles T. Hubbard. 

61 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

The land on Walnut Street opposite the North School, on which 
was once a good-sized house, was known as the Allen farm, later 
hought by Peter Lyon, then by the Coggeshalls who kept a small 
dry goods store. The cellar hole behind the elms is all that remains 
to show it was once a place of residence. The property at present 
is largely owned by the Catholic parish of Milford. (Peter Lyon's 
granddaughter married Robert Ingersoll.) 

Thomas Slack bought the three-roomed house originally owned 
by Seth Lyon and moved it from land opposite Fairbanks Avenue 
and Walnut Street to land near the North School, where it stood 
on its solitary mound for many years. 

1 That same year George W. Hoogs was also granted a license, both as 
a taverner and a retailer. Other retailers were Samuel \Y. Dix and Dexter 
Ware. 

LAND OWNERS 

In addition and subsequent to the original grants of land al- 
ready given, a summary of the other large owners in real estate 
may prove interesting. 

The division of the Common Lands north of the Sherborn road 
with consequent private ownership brought about the settlement 
there within a few years of many families. This was especially 
true of the district about Lower Falls. Henry Pratt, afterward of 
Newton, established a tannery at the Falls, just north of the pres- 
ent Washington Street bridge. He possessed considerable land ad- 
joining his tan yard, and built him a house. Lemuel Pratt suc- 
ceeded to most of his Needham estate, and lived on the north side 
of what is now Washington Street, where about 1800 Capt. S. A. 
Pratt kept tavern. The next settler west of Pratt, having his home 
on the north side of the Weston road, was William Chub whose 
family removed to Sturbridge. North of his land was the farm of 
George Robinson who lived within the present limits of Weston, 
but whose farm was in both towns. 

September 2, 1828, the Pratt farm comprised about eighty-six 
acres bounded "northerly on land of Peter Lyon, Charles Rice and 
said Broad's land to the Town Road, leading from Newton Lower 
Falls to Weston, thence on said Road easterly to land of John 
Parker, thence on said Parker's land to the Road last mentioned, 
thence on said Road and Sherborn Road to the bounds first men- 
tioned." The Pratt land by the middle of the last century had 
passed into the hands of the Rices. 

West of the Chub and Pratt property Ephraim Jackson owned 
land to the Weston line. This was largely bought by Enoch Fisk 
whose son Isaiah sold to Emery and Moses Fisk, his cousins. 
Joseph E. Fiske of the last generation developed real estate, both 
inherited and bought. 

The Lyons family owned land on Walnut East and now a large 
tract on Forest Street opposite the Country Club, part of it having 
once belonged to Otis Sawyer. 

62 



LAND OWNERS 

The Daniels property on Oakland Street was considerable and 
included land which later passed into the hands of the Bird, Col- 
burn and Bancroft families. 

The Wares, always large land owners, willed land "around 
Maugus Hill" as early as 1695. Ephraim Ware owned the Sheridan 
home and land around Bosemary Brook and on Brooksidc Boad. 
Another branch of the family, Daniel Ware, owned land and built 
the homestead on Brook Street. Captain Beuben owned the house 
on Walnut Street now occupied by the Newton Ice Company. Ware 
property is still owned by the family in Wellesley Hills Square 
and on Maugus Hill, though not inherited from the original Ware 
owner. 

The Fuller land has been for generations on Forest Street, 
Great Plain Avenue and Wellesley Avenue as far as the Wellesley 
Square. The original grant was probably in the Natick dividend 
of 1659, and some of this land is still in the Fuller family, coming 
down through inheritance. The first Fuller home was built beyond 
the Wellesley line in Needham, opposite the house of Mr. Mcintosh 
on Great Plain Avenue. 

The Kingsbury original grant of 1699 was held intact for many 
years by the family. The Town Farm, now the Country Club, was 
in the family for at least one hundred years, the last Kingsbury 
owner being Leonard. L. Allen Kingsbury of the last generation 
added the Dix land through marriage, and bought the "Boslonville" 
land and other holdings still in the family. 

However the Bostonville land and the old house on Washington 
and Kingsbury Streets was purchased in 1841 by Daniel Ayer who 
bought it for speculation and advertised house lots for sale at auc- 
tion. A church and a school were to be erected and excitement ran 
high. The only result seemed to be uncertain titles to land and 
much litigation in consequence. Ayer was the inventor of the 
patent medicine which bears his name. 

Ward was an early settler, Ward's Lane, now Pond Street, run- 
ning through his land. 

The Stevens still own much of their original homestead on 
Worcester Street, inherited through the Gays. 

The Hunnewell land comes down from 1763 though first in the 
Natick limits, but Samuel Welles, and later his nephew John, had 
other holdings throughout the town from the present Country Club 
on the east to the Newton line on the south and the Natick line on 
the north, 

Henry Wood, an early manufacturer and one of the first users, 
if not inventor, of cement for building purposes, owned the land 
now in the Abbott family on Linden Street. He moved his works 
from Boston to Newton Lower Falls, to the Bice place, but later 
removed to the Daniel Morse place where he not only carried on 
his business but lived there. In 1837 he sold his Linden Street 
property to the Arnold family (ancestors of the Shaw family), who 
sold to Henry Stone, who in his turn sold to Judge Abbott. 

The Morse family owned land and houses opposite the Arch 

(53 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

Bridge on Central Street near Natick, but the family has now inter- 
married with the Lovewells and Hathaways. Samuel Morse was the 
principal land owner in this part of the town until Needham Leg, 
where he lived, was annexed to Natick. Morse's Pond, once Broad's, 
was named for the family. Central Street ran very much nearer to 
the Morse house opposite the culvert. 

The Mansfield family, one of whose descendants married Wil- 
liam Bigelow of Natick, owned land near Worcester and Blossom 
(now Weston Boad) Streets. 

"Garfield land" is often found in looking up titles, for though 
the family are not now in the town i they owned real estate in the 
vicinity of Cedar Street for a great many years. Some of this came 
through the Ware family. 

Of later land owners Charles Ayling and Clough B. Miles owned 
land and houses which they sold to A. B. Clapp who is developing 
that part of the "Hundreds" which until recently was still wood- 
land. 

The Bollins family in Wellesley and the Abbotts in Wellesley 
Hills began in the late nineties to develop their large holdings 
resulting in many desirable homes. 

Henry Durant, through the Smiths, Morses and others, acquired 
the College Grounds. He, as well as the Abbotts and C. B. Dana, 
was taxed for real estate for a number of years as non-residents. 

Today (1917) Isaac Sprague, Charles A. Dean, C. N. Taylor, 
Helen Temple Cooke and Arthur P. Dana are later and large land 
owners. 

1 Moses Garfield's tomb, dated 1817, is in the old burying ground in 
Needham. 

ITEMS FROM EARLY TOWN RECORDS 

There is much interesting reading in the early Needham records 
about the doings of the town which, of course, were in line with 
the proceeding of New England towns in general. 

Many of the old offices which we smile at or reappoint in jest 
from year to year, such as the hog reeves, deer reeves, field drivers, 
were very important and arduous offices in those days. Until 1781 
the swine were allowed to run at large, by annual vote. After that 
they were allowed to do so if "well-yoked and ringed," at the dis- 
cretion of the town meeting. Bams were early restrained. The 
"great and General Court," about 1780, ordered the towns "to vote 
each year whether horses, horse kind and neat cattle should be 
allowed to run at large without a keeper." Needham generally 
voted in the negative. 

"Surveyors of bread" was a new office introduced after the 
Bevolution. 

During the war 3,000 pounds were voted for highways, as 
against 85 pounds in a subsequent year. Work on the highways 
was equivalent to paying a tax. 

64 




Mucus Hii.i. from Forest Street 
(November, 1889) 





:M r '■•:.■■ " " 










- 


f: 


^r-* 




r> ■ "»& fc? 






.. 


• 



View from Maugus Hill 
(188!)) 



ITEMS FROM EARLY TOWN RECORDS 

The selectmen were recorded as paying out money for "running 
people out of town." 

In 1732 it was "voted that four taverns should not be kept in 
town, it was voted that three taverns should not be kept in town, 
it was voted that two taverns should not be kept in town, it was 
voted that one tavern should not be kept in town." 

In 1738 the town ammunition was kept in the meeting house, 
but in 1754 a house was built to keep the town stock of ammunition 
and arms. 

March 13, 1738, it was "put to vote to see if the town would 
allow the women to have half the front seats in the galleries — - 
passed in the negative." "It was put to vote to see if the town 
would have four pews raised in dignification. Namely, the old 
pews under the stairs and the two corner pews at the front door. 
Passed in the affirmative." 

1765 it was voted to use Doctor Watts' hymns instead of Brady 
and Tate or "those composed to be sung in the Dissenting Churches 
and Congregations in New England." 

In 1772 a bill was paid to Jonathan Ware for warning twenty- 
eight persons out of town. This may have been partly in accor- 
dance with an old law by which the selectmen were authorized to 
decide if persons visiting in town were likely to become town 
paupers, or probably as being undesirable in other ways. 

In 1772 seven shillings, two pence, two farthings were paid for 
iron for stocks. Later a bill was paid of ten shillings to Jonathan 
Day for making and getting up the stocks. 

It was voted in 1792 to establish a hospital for smallpox. In 
1809 the town passed a vote to "inoculate for cow pox." 

In 1798 a reward of sixteen cents was paid for each crow caught 
and killed, in 1814 it was raised to twenty-five cents. 

"In the year 1813 the Legislature passed an act granting author- 
ity to certain persons to form a Fire Engine Company composed 
of residents of the Lower Falls, twenty-one in all, thirteen of whom 
should always be inhabitants of Newton, the others from Need- 
ham. The legislative act granted unusual powers to this Company 
which was called Cataract Engine Company, the members of which 
paid an admission fee of five dollars. Their tub was at first a 
wooden one, but afterwards replaced with copper. They purchased 
their own machine; also the buckets, then in common use at fires, 
and other paraphernalia. They adopted by-laws, and by au- 
thority of the Court, imposed penalties for their infringement. 
Though the temperance movement had not then commenced, strin- 
gent regulations were adopted to prevent the members of the Com- 
pany from using spirituous liquor to an immoderate extent. This 
organization existed from 1812 until about 1840 when it came 
under the jurisdiction of the town of Newton." (S. F. Smith's 
"History of Newton.") 

In 1846 a paper certifies that certain men, whose names are 
given as "members of Cataract Engine Company No. 1, having done 
their duty for the past year, their names are presented to the Select- 

65 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

men that their poll tax may be refunded to them." This was prob- 
ably after the separation of the fire companies of the two towns. 

In financial accounts of the town we frequently find money 
paid to inn holders and individuals for refreshments served to fire- 
men after fires. 

The indications throughout the history of Needham are that 
tlie town was always poor — the minister's salary was generally in 
arrears and more than half the time we read that the town "voted 
not to send a representation to the General Court this year" due to 
the necessity of giving him a salary. 

In 1825 thirteen hog reeves were chosen. 

In 1833 §1,807.93 was taken in by the town treasurer and 
§1,771.89 was paid out. The amounts vary very little from this 
for several years. 

In 1833 Fire wards were appointed for the first time, and in 
1844 $150 was voted for engines, §60 for the Lower Falls, §60 for 
East Needham and §30 for Upper Falls. 

In 1836 the following hand bill was printed: 

TO THE SNOW CONTRACTORS 

The expense of Shovelling the road is so great, that I have caused 
Scrapers to be made, to be used with horses, and I wish you to use 
them in preference to shovelling. After a storm, or when the snow 
has drifted into the track, immediately pass over the road with the 
Scraper and three men. The Scraper clears a space wide enough, 
except where the drifts are three feet high and upwards, and it is 
only in such places that I wish you to shovel. When the snow 
and ice is so hard that the Scraper will not take it off, it must be 
shovelled. When a thaw takes place, go over your section and clear 
the drains, and if the thaw is suddenly checked, look to the flanges 
and clear the way for them. 

February 2, 1836. J. F. CURTIS, Sup't. 

In 1844 it was voted that a notice of the town meeting should 
be sent to each family in town. A few years later it was voted 
that such notices should be posted in different parts of the town, 
probably superseding the previous vote. 

In 1850 it was voted that the "assessors go over the town to- 
gether taking the valuation." 

Among the early moderators were represented the families of 
the Slacks, Wares, Mclntoshes, Daniells, Flaggs, Rices. 

An old paper gives the following contract between an employer 
and a seventeen-year-old boy bound as apprentice in 1818 for 
four years to Charles Rice, "to learn the act, trade or mystery" of 
Papermaker. "During all of which time the said secrets keep, his 
lawful commands duly obey. He shall do no damage to his said 
Master, nor suffer it to be done by others, shall not waste the goods 
of his said Master, nor lend them unlawfullj' to any. At cards, 
dice or any unlawful game by night from the service of his said 
Master without his leave, not haunt or frequent ale-houses, taverns 

66 



EARLY SOCIETIES 

or gaming-places. He shall not contract matrimony within the said 
term; nor shall he commit any acts of vice or immorality which 
are forbidden by the Laws of the Commonwealth; but, in all things, 
and at all times he shall carry and behave himself toward his said 
Master and all others, as a good and faithful apprentice ought to 
do, during all the term aforesaid." And Mr. Rice did "hereby 
covenant and promise to teach and instruct or cause the said ap- 
prentice to be instructed in the art, trade or calling of a paper- 
maker, by the best way or means that he may or can (if said 
apprentice be capable to learn) and, during the said term to find and 
provide unto the said Apprentice suitable board, washing and lodg- 
ing — pay thirty dollars the first year, forty dollars the second 
year, fifty dollars the third year at suitable times in lieu of all 

clothing which the said is to furnish for himself, or which are 

to he furnished by his father, the said ." 



EARLY SOCIETIES 

Among the early societies in the last century we find the New- 
ton, Natick and Needham Society for the Apprehending of Horse 
Thieves, established April 19, 1832. It does not seem to have flour- 
ished very long, but evidently was not financially embarrassed, as 
when it disbanded at Craft's Hotel (Elm Park) in April, 1831, each 
member received $2.88 as his share from the general treasury. 

The Norfolk Rifle Rangers, organized in 1832, were attached to 
the first regiment of the Second Brigade of the first division. They 
disbanded after a final parade at Kimball's Hotel, 1840. 

The Needham Library in the east part was established in 1790. 

The Needham Farmers' Library in the west established in 
1852, with Alvin Fuller, 2d, as Librarian, with a room in his house 
lasted for a few years. 

The Grantville Library Association, with a room in George D. 
Ware's house in the square, organized December 3, 1877, and opened 
July 13, 1878, was disbanded when the Hunnewcll Library was pre- 
sented to the town. The High School students took turns at one 
time in being librarians, but Miss Belle Townsend and Miss Sarah 
Batchelder were librarians for permanent and longer periods. 

The West Needham Library in the upper village was organized 
in the '50's and at one time had a room in Nehoiden Block where the 
present Waban Block stands. (Frank Fuller, the son of Augustus 
Fuller, had a grocery store underneath, and lived with his family 
in the cottage now occupied by the Curriers.) The Library con- 
tinued its existence until the Town Library was opened. One of 
the librarians was Gilbert Webber now a doctor, whose father built 
the Durants' home. The library association held fairs and raised 
money in this way to meet expenses. At one time they gave one 
hundred dollars to the Congregational Church for books. Many 
pleasant social times were enjoyed by the association and their 
friends. 

67 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

The trees which beautify Washington Street in Wellesley Hills 
were planted by a Tree Society in the '50's and '60's. It included 
among its members John Curtis, John Shaw, Reuben Ware and 
Dexter Ware. 

The Lyceum has long passed out of memory, but Sarah South- 
wick, Seth Dewing, Deacon Batchelder, the "Rice girls," L. Allen 
Kingsbury, "Ned" Atwood, C. B. Patten, D. D. Dana were almost al- 
ways on hand to make pithy and keen comments on all subjects. 
Tradition says that in ante-bellum times, no matter what the topic 
for the evening, the Southwicks always brought the discussion 
around to Abolition. 

The Grantville Dramatic Club flourished from 1871 to 1881 most 
successfully for all the community. 

For several years until January 14, 1882, there was a Grant- 
ville Street Light Association which on that date presented "to the 
town of Wellesley all lamps, lamp-posts, and such other fixtures 
belonging to said association, used for the purpose of lighting street 
lamps, for the use of the town for ever." 

Meridian Lodge, now in Natick, was instituted September 5, 
1798, in Watertown. For some time its headquarters were at the 
house at the corner of River and Washington Streets, owned by 
General Rice, later by John Pulsifer and now by James Early. The 
upper floor was a hall, on the walls of which were painted the 
masonic emblems. June 10, 1811, the Lodge was moved to Smith's 
Tavern at the junction of Washington Street and Worcester Turn- 
pike (Elm Park). 

In 1872 the Abbott Post had forty-one members and met the 
first Monday of the month at Waban and Parker Halls alternately. 
July 29, 1873, the town "voted that the treasurer be authorized to 
convey to Abbott Post, Grand Army of the Republic, a certain lot of 
land in Grantville for the sum of one dollar, on condition that a 
hall be erected on said land for purposes of the Post, said land to 
revert to the town when the needs of the Post shall cease." The 
land was not used and reverted to the town. 

The Wellesley Soldiers' Club succeeded the Post, a permanent 
organization being made September 4, 1875. Meetings were held 
for years at Waban Hall, and occasionally at homes of members. 
For several years they had a room in the present Manual Arts Build- 
ing. Today the few members who are still living have charge of 
the exercises Memorial Day. 

GENEALOGIES OF SOME OF THE OLDER 
RESIDENTS OF THE TOWN 

Caroline Elizabeth (DEWING) Wise is the ninth child and third 
daughter of Seth Dewing (Nathan Ebenezer Henry Andrew Andrew) 
and the sister of Joseph Haven Dewing whose widow lives on Grove 
Street. 

The first Andrew was received into the first church of Dedham, 

68 



GENEALOGIES OF OLDER RESIDENTS 

February 19, 1646. He settled in that part of Dedham which was 
set off as Needham in 1711. His name appears in Whitman's His- 
tory of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company as a member 
from Natick in 1644; that was probably because he resided nearer 
that place than the settlement at Dedham, on what was later known 
as the Ridge Hill Farm, part, if not all of which was owned by the 
Dewing descendants until 1811. His second wife, Ann Donstall, 
whom he married October 10, 1652, was the mother of his grown-up 
children. He died September 16, 1677. His will is long and minute; 
in it he gives his oldest son Andrew (born November 26, 1655, died 
January 14, 1717/18, married October 27, 1682, Dorothy Hyde) all 
but twenty acres of his land in the Natick dividend. The second 
Andrew also acquired grants of other lands from the town of Ded- 
ham. He was a petitioner for the incorporation of the town of 
Needham. 

His son Henry (born October 16, 1690, died March 21, 1765, 
married December 4, 1716, in Roxbury, Mehitable, daughter of 
Eleazar and Mehitable (Thurston) Ellis, born May 13, 1695, died 
May 17, 1750). His son Ebenezer was born October 10, 1725, died 
November 26, 1766, married in 1753, in Roston, Isabella Rrownley. 

He probably lived at the homestead of his father who gave him 
land in 1753. He received additional land on his father's death. 
His son Nathan was born February 8, 1758, died December 17, 1831, 
married (1) June 7, 1780, Elizabeth, probably daughter of Thomas 
and Rebecca Rroad of Natick who died between 1800 and 1803 at 
about the age of thirty-five years. He was in the Revolutionary 
War, serving in the expedition to Quebec, having first enrolled as a 
member of the Natick company under command of Capt. James 
Mann, Col. Samuel Bullard's regiment. Later he was in the Con- 
tinental Army under Gen. Washington at Trenton and Princeton. 
Later he served in Capt. Aaron Smith's company, Col. Benj. Gill's 
regiment, serving 3 months, 27 days, and again in Capt. Luke How- 
ell's company, Col. Nathan Tyler's regiment for 3 months, 13 days, 
as sergeant. After the war he received the title of Captain in the 
Massachusetts State Militia. 

December 28, 1811, he sold about 200 acres of land to Ethel Jen- 
nings which was probably the last of the homestead property which 
had been in the family for four generations. He then removed to 
the easterly part of the town where he remained until his death. 

His son Seth was born September 6, 1788, died January 7, 1883, 
at the residence of his son Joseph H. Seth married, April 10, 1815, 
Olive, daughter of Ezra (Jesse Moses Nathaniel) and Mary (Glover) 
Haven, born September 12, 1791, in Framingham, died January 4, 
1882. He was a carpenter by trade, going to sea as such in 1810, 
and worked also in Needham and Newton Upper and Lower Falls, 
until 1815, when he became postmaster at North Needham, and also 
dealt in the West India goods trade. Later he lived in Boston, 
retiring from business in 1869 and returning to Wellesley. He was 
for several years Master of Meridian Lodge when it was located in 
North Needham. 

69 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

His son Seth, born August 8, 1820, died January 3, 1895, at the 
home of his sister, Mrs. Dexter Kingsbury (Mary Ann, born Septem- 
ber 29, 1818, married, April 9, 1840, Dexter, son of Luther and Al- 
mira (Morse) Kingsbury, died (1906). He married, August 24, 1863, 
Mary T. W„ daughter of William S. and Elizabeth (Holbrook) Beal, 
born January 30, 1832, in Milton, died August 31, 1881, in Braintrec. 
He taught in the academy at Wrentham with L. Allen Kingsbury; at 
Wcstboro, and for twenty years the grammar school. His brother, 
Joseph Haven, born July 14, 1831, in Charlestown, died July 2, 1890, 
in Wellesley. He married (1) April 7, 1864, Mrs. Sophia Abbie 
(Grant) Kingsbury, widow of Hamilton Kingsbury, born January 
17, 1834, died September 4, 1874. He married (2) April 21, 1885, 
E. Marietta, daughter of Albert and Emily (Kingsbury) Smith, born 
September 11, 1837. He enlisted in Company C, 43d regiment Mas- 
sachusetts volunteers for nine months, and was discharged as 
sergeant July 30, 1863. 

Maria Willet Howard (Mrs. Aubrey Hilliard) is the grand- 
daughter of Reuben Dewing (Elijah, Ebenezer, Henry, Andrew, An- 
drew) whose daughter Mary Jane was born February 9, 1840, and 
died in Braintree, October 31, 1874. She married, October 16, 1861, 
William H., son of William and Maria (Willet) Howard. Reuben 
Dewing was born February 12, 1805, in Bellingham, Mass., and died 
in 1858. He married Mary, daughter of William and Sally (Parker) 
Fames, born August 30, 1809, in Holliston, and died February, 1846. 

His father, Elijah, was born July 11, 1761, in Needham, died 
September 10, 1844, in Medway. He married May 14, 1788, Betty 
Reed, who also died September 10, 1844. He was in the War of the 
Revolution, serving for short periods at various times. 

FISKE, Joseph Emery (Emery, Moses, Moses, Moses, Na- 
thaniel, Nathan) born October 23, 1839, died February 22, 1909, was 
the son of Eunice Morse (Adam, Samuel, Samuel, Samuel, Daniel) 
and Emery Fiske. He married (1) Ellen Maria Ware (Dexter, 
Daniel, Josiah, Nathaniel) and (2) Abby Sawyer Hastings (Rufus, 
Stephen, John, Daniel, Samuel) of Sterling, Massachusetts. He 
graduated from Harvard in 1861, served in the 43d Regiment as ser- 
geant and in the 2d Heavy Artillery as Captain. He was State Sen- 
ator in 1874-76 and, like his father, filled many town offices. 

Ellen Ware Fiske, born January 14, 1871, daughter of Ellen 
Maria (Ware) and Joseph Emery Fiske, lives at the Fiske home- 
stead, built by her great-great-great-uncle Enoch (Moses, Nathaniel, 
Nathan) in 1804 for his son Isaiah. This house was bought in 1834 
by Emery and Moses, the latter soon selling out his share to Emery. 
Enoch lived in the house built by himself on Oakland Street, now 
on the Catholic school grounds. The family of Fiskes resided in the 
Leg, Framingham, and Needham from a very early date, having 
come from Watertown where they had settled in 1634. 

Isabella Howe (Fiske) Conant, born April 29, 1874, is the 
daughter of Abby (Hastings) and Joseph Emery Fiske, and the wife 
of Walter A. Conant. 

70 



GExNEALOGIES OF OLDER RESIDENTS 

The FULLER families of the town trace their ancestry back to 
Ensign Thomas of Dedham, but do so in two distinct lines. 

Charles E. Fuller, professor of Mechanical Engineering at the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, electric light and water com- 
missioner of Wellesley and on many important committees, and 
one of the most prominent of the older families is the son of 
Edward G. (Augustus, Captain Jonathan, William, Robert, Jr., Rob- 
ert, John, Thomas) and Frances P. (Farnum) Fuller. Mr. Fuller 
married Addie, daughter of Charles P. and Martha J. (Fuller — Jona- 
than, Capt. Jonathan, William, Robert, Jr., Robert, John, Thomas) 
Withington. 

G. Clinton Fuller and Ada (Fuller) Moulton are the children 
of Edwin (Alvin, William, Robert, Jr., Robert, John, Thomas) and 
Malvina Almira (Parker) Fuller. 

Ada Fuller married William Moulton whose ancestry is traced 
through the Hunting side. 

Frank Louis Fuller, Edward Ware Fuller, Ellen Mabel Fuller, 
Jeanette (widow of Charles Rixby) are the children of Hezekiah 
(Deacon Hezekiah, Solomon, Lt. Amos, Thomas, Ensign Thomas) 
and Emmeleine (Jackson — Ephraim, Samuel, Edward, Edward, 
Sebas, Edward) Fuller. 

Deacon Hezekiah was one of the founders of the Grantville 
Church. He originally lived in the upper village, on the present 
Rollins place. Hezekiah, the younger, was a carpenter, and among 
the houses that he built were the Wellesley Hills Congregational 
parsonage and the Fuller house on the corner of Washington Street 
and Woodlawn Avenue. His wife belonged to the Jackson family 
of Newton, who owned much property on both sides of the river, 
the Fiske homestead coming through the Jackson heirs as well as 
the town farm in West Newton. 

Mrs. Ellen E. (FLAGG,) Sawyer the daughter of William and 
Martha (Winch) Flagg and sister of Samuel Brown (William, Solo- 
mon, Solomon, Gershom, Benjamin, Thomas) Flagg, whose widow 
Caroline (Kingsbury, Luther, Joseph, Jesse, Josiah, Eleazar, Joseph 
and daughter Martha live on Cottage Street is the widow of R. K. 
Sawyer. 

William, brother of Samuel, married Mary Beck and their son. 
H. Lasselle, married (1) Annie M., and their son, Howard, lives 
in Wellesley. Edward Flagg (Eben, Elisha, Solomon, Solomon, 
Gershom, Benjamin, Thomas) has a son, Walter, by his first wife, 
Emily Woodward. 

"Uncle Solomon," the son of the second Solomon, has no de- 
scendants in town, but he was the best known of the family. His 
mother was Esther Brown and his grandfather, Solomon (who mar- 
ried Lydia Ware) lived at first in a small house off Dover Street. 
Later he built the "Eben Flagg" house on Central Street and an- 
other long, low one, very similar to it, about where the Episcopal 
Rectory now stands. Later he erected the house at the corner of 
Washington and Church Streets, where he kept a tavern. 

71 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

"Uncle Solomon" was town clerk for many years in the old 
town of Needham and when Wellesley was set off he served in the 
same capacity from 1881-1888. His handwriting was unusually 
legible and his books were marvels of neatness. He was a tenor 
singer of considerable prominence and led the choir of the Welles- 
ley Congregational Church for many years. Tradition tells that a 
stranger came into the church one morning who also possessed 
a leading tenor voice. To the great amusement of the congregation 
the morning hymns soon became a contest of strength and endur- 
ance between Mr. Flagg and the stranger, with honors finally for 
the home town. 

Miss Abbie HUNTING of Cottage Street is the only one of the 
family name now living in the town. Her father, Israel (Daniel, 
Stephen, John, John) married Rhoda Dewing. 

Louisa, a sister of Miss Hunting, married James Moulton, and 
their sons are James Francis, who married Mary Boyd, and Willard, 
who married Ada, daughter of Edwin Fuller. 

The ancestor, Elder John of the Dedham Church, owned land in 
the Hundreds in the 1699 grant. An old Hunting house lived in by 
Charles Mcintosh, and now remodelled by Mr. Sprague, may have 
been on the extreme southeast boundary of the old grant. 

The Welles family, residents of the town as early as 1763, and 
large land owners always, married into the HUNNEWELL family 
of Watertown, and thus transferred name and land titles to that 
family. Isabella Pratt, daughter of John (Arnold, Samuel, Samuel, 
Samuel, Thomas) and Abigail (Welles — Samuel, Samuel, Samuel, 
Samuel, Thomas) Welles married Horatio Hollis, son of Dr. Walter 
(Richard, Charles, Charles, Richard, Roger) and Susanna (Cooke) 
Hunnewell. 

Their descendants are: 

(A) Hollis married Louisa Bronson and their children are: 
Hollis, Horatio and Charlotte Bronson. Hollis married (1) Maud 
S. Jaffray and their children are Louisa B. and Maud J. He mar- 
ried (2) Mary (1) (Kemp) (Neilson) and their child is Hollis. 
Charlotte married Victor Sorchan and their child is Louisa B. 

(B) Francis Welles married (1) Margaret L. Fassitt and (2) 
Gertrude C. Sturgis. 

(C) John Welles married Pauline E. Perche and had John 
A. and Francis A. (unmarried). John A. married (1) Martha 
Stolz and had John W. W. and Albert A. F. and (2) Bertha 
Schmitt and had Harry H. 

(D) Susan died in infancy 

(E) Walter married Jane A. Peele, and their children are: 
Mary P., Sarah P., who died in infancy, Walter Jr., Francis Welles, 
Willard P., who died at eighteen, Louisa and Arnold Welles. Mary 
P. married Sydney M. Williams, and their children are: Mary 
P., Sydney M., Jane P. and Richard M. Walter Jr., married Minna 
C. Lyman, and their child is Caroline A. 

(F) Arthur married Jane Hubbard Boit and their children arc: 

72 



GENEALOGIES OF OLDER RESIDENTS 

Isabella, Jane Boit, Julia Overing and Margaret Fassitt. Isa- 
bella married (1) Herbert M. Harriman and (2) James S. Barclay. 
Margaret married George Baty Blake, and their children are: Mar- 
garet and Julia O. 

(G) Isabella Pratt married Bobert Gould and their children 
are: Susan Welles, Hollis H., Theodore L. and Arthur H. Susan 
married John C. Lee, and their children are: Isabella, Lucy H. and 
Pauline Agassiz; Hollis married Anna F. Driscoll; Theodore mar- 
ried Lillian A Donahue ; Arthur married Acrata von Schrader. 

(H) Jane Welles married Francis William Sargent and their 
children are: Jane Welles, Francis Williams, Alice, who died 
young, Henry Jackson, Daniel, Margaret Williams am' Buth -"rho 
died young. Jane married Dr. David Cheever, and their children 
are: David, Francis and Charles E. Francis W. married Margery 
Lee and their child is Francis W. 

(I) Henry Sargent married Mary Bowditch Whitney and their 
children are: Christiana, Henry S., who died in infancy, Gertrude 
and Mary. Christiana married Nelson S. Bartlett, Jr., and their 
children are: Nelson S. Bartlett 3rd and Christiana. 

The KINGSBUBY family have long been prominent in town 
affairs and there is still a large family connection. Of the four- 
teen children of Luther (Joseph, Jesse, Josiah, Eleazar, Joseph) and 
Almira (Morse, Joseph, David, Captain Joseph, Samuel) Kings- 
bury, eleven grew up and married. Allen married (1) in 1848 Mary 
Jane Dix and (2) in 1872 Charlotte Sawyer daughter of Otis 
Sawyer. Both of his wives were school teachers in the village as 
well as himself. He was on the school board for fourteen years 
and was the first to advocate and insist on music being taught 
in the schools. He was the holder of much real estate in the vil- 
lage. His children are Florence who married L. M. Grant, and 
Frank A., Herbert and Mowry, the three latter not living in town. 

Lewis married Eliza Cloudman. Their son Harry is chief of 
police of the town. He married Katherine Carey and they have 
three children: Luther, John and Katherine. Lewis' widow and 
daughter Mary live on Forest Street. The other daughter Ella is the 
widow of Joseph E. Peabody a town official for many years and 
son of Ezekiel Peabody, formerly town warden. Her children are 
Harry L., Marion and Estelle who is the wife of Theodore Parker 
of Salt Lake City. 

Dexter married Mary Ann Dewing (Seth Andrew) and their 
children are: Fred H., Francis M. the widow of Lucius and Emma 
O. Fred married Edith Nelson who is not living. He was town 
clerk for a great many years. He lives with his daughter Eliza- 
beth on Wellesley Avenue. Hamilton married Sophia Grant and 
their family does not live in town. 

Of the daughters Almira married Bichard Parker and their 
daughter Nellie lives on Wellesley Avenue, and son Walter who 
married Katherine Stoker lives on Clifford Street. Emily mar- 
ried Albert Smith and their daughter Marietta is the second wife 

73 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

and widow of Joseph H. Dewing. Harriet married T. Willis Par- 
meiiter, Sophronia married Harvey Brown, Marian married George 
Russell, Maria married William L. Clarke (whose family once 
owned the property now belonging to the Academy of the Assump- 
tion) and their daughter Anna M. lives on Wellesley Avenue. Car- 
oline married Samuel Flagg and with her daughter Martha lives 
on Cottage Street. 

The house on the lower corner of Kingsbury and Washing- 
ton Streets was a very old Kingsbury home and was on the 
original "Hundreds" grant of 1699, and built by Jesse Kingsbury. 
The "Brick end" house now owned by the Andrews family was 
the Luther Kingsbury home where perhaps all of his children were 
born with the exception of Dexter who was born in a house- 
where the Wellesley Hills station now is. 

Another branch of the Kingsbury family, extinct as far as 
is known were the children of Joseph and Nancy (Bacon) Kings- 
bury, first cousins of Luther's family, Luther and Joseph being 
brothers. These children were William, Nancy, Joseph, Charles 
and Charlotte. The two latter are remembered as living in the 
Kingsbury house on Linden Street, now owned by E. H. Fay. 

Mrs. Charles E. Shattuck (Emily Kingsbury) was the daugh- 
ter of Annie Bliss (Holmes) and Leonard Kingsbury (Leonard 
Jonathan, Caleb, Josiah, Eleazar, Joseph), who was the owner of 
the town farm and adjacent laud. 

On Dover Street live Charles, Rebecca and Eliza, children of 
Eliza (Reynolds) and William Deming Kingsbury (Moses, Moses, 
Timothy, Timothy, Joseph). These Kingsburys originally came 
from the east side, but their grandmother, Lucy Deming, wife of 
Moses Kingsbury, was the daughter of Esther (daughter of the Rev. 
Oliver Peabody, the first minister settled over the Natick Indians) 
and William Deming. Another daughter, Rebecca, married Thomas 
Noyes, the first minister of the West Necdham parish. The two 
brothers, Dr. William and Jonathan, owned much of what is now 
Wellesley Square on both sides of Washington Street as far as 
Kingsbury Street and back to the Fuller land on Wellesley Avenue. 
The Jonathan Deming house was back of the lilacs where the old 
cellar hole is on the library grounds, and was lived in later by the 
minister and his wife, the latter being the niece of this Mr. Deming. 
William Deming lived in the house opposite, now destroyed, and 
replaced by the Mansard roofed dwelling, once owned by Professor 
A. H. Buck, now by Boston University. 

An Isaac Deming also owned land on Dover Street where Dr. 
E. H. Wiswall is now located. 

Edward and William LYON who own and live on the Lyon farm 
opposite the present Country Club are sons of William, who with 
his brother Lemuel owned land on Walnut Street for a great many 
years. Their grandfather Lemuel lived in Milton and traces through 
Jacob to Benjamin who lived in Milton, the original home of the 
Lyons in this part of the country. 

74 



GENEALOGIES OF OLDEPx RESIDENTS 

Arnold LIVERMORE and Mrs. Edward W. Perkins (Faith Per- 
kins) and their children are the descendants of the Livermore, Ar- 
nold, Hoogs and Shaw families. Their father, Oliver C. Livermore, 
was a captain in the Civil War and had an especially brave record. 
He served as selectman and in various other civic capacities. His 
father Elisha (Elisha, Amos, Oliver, Daniel, Samuel, John) married 
Faith Hoogs, the daughter of George W. (William) and Faithful 
(Seaverns) Hoogs. Faithful Seaverns was the seventh child of 
Joseph (Samuel, Samuel, Samuel) and Elizabeth (Stratton) 
Seaverns. 

Captain Livermore married Georgiana SHAW, the daughter of 
George and Sarah (Arnold) Shaw. In Mrs. Livermore's father's 
generation there were thirteen brothers and sisters, children of 
Caleb (Samuel, Joseph, Caleb, Roger) and Retsy (Rrown) Shaw. 
"Uncle" James and "Uncle" John Shaw were two of the brothers 
who were prominent village characters in the past generation, inter- 
ested in all civic advancement and improvement, John Shaw giving 
the bell and clock to the school which bears the Shaw name. 

Mrs. George Shaw's family, the Arnolds, held considerable prop- 
erty in the town, the Southwick place once belonging to Joseph 
Arnold, and the Gamaliel Rradford place to Ambrose Arnold. 

Lucy Seaward married (1) John Shaw, son of Sarah (Arnold) 
and George Shaw, twin brother of Mrs. Oliver Livermore, and (2) 
Herbert Kingsbury, son of L. Allen and Jane (Dix) Kingsbury. Mis. 
Joshua Raker is the daughter of the first marriage. 

The MORSE family, prominent for many years in Natick and 
the "Leg" is represented in this town principally by the Hathaway 
and Lovewell families. 

Rebecca Morse (Daniel. Henry, Daniel, Henry, Daniel, Daniel, 
Daniel, Samuel) born in 1824, married Harrison Hathaway in 1848 
and lived at the corner of Central and Weston Road until her death 
in 1916. Her son, Eugene Hathaway makes his home in Porto 
Rico. 

Mrs. Hathaway's sister Martha married C. R. Lovewell in 1847. 
Their daughters were Mrs. Thomas Ferguson (Mary Lovewell) and 
Mrs. Herbert A. Joslin (Nora Lovewell) who lives on Washington 
Street. The sons are Charles Herbert and S. H. 

The third generation is represented by Jeanette and Ellen Fer- 
guson, Walter Lovewell. 

The Lovewell family came from Weston and at one time owned 
much of the property around Cottage Street, formerly known as 
Lovewell Place. 

Mrs. L. Allen Kingsbury (Charlotte SAWYER) and Mrs. E. H. 
Stanwood were the daughters of Charlotte (Roynton) and Otis Saw- 
yer of Foxboro. Their brother, Mowry, lives in New Jersey, and 
recently (1915) gave land on Forest Street to the town, known as 
Sawyer Park. 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

The Sawyer family owned and lived on the property on Forest 
Street now owned hy the Convalescent Home, once known as the 
Metcalf farm. 

The STEVENS family first settled here when Sibell Gay, daugh- 
ter of Jeremiah, married, October 18, 1759, Ephraim Stevens of 
Holden. Through her the old "school lot," previously referred to, 
of three hundred acres bought by her grandfather Jonathan Gay of 
Dedham came into the Stevens family, who still own much of it. 
Tradition says that the Stevens also owned considerable land in 
Sudbury at even an earlier period. 

Francis H. Stevens, one of the substantial citizens of the town, 
is the son of Augustus (Timothy, Ephraim, Ephraim, Cyprian, 
Cyprian, Thomas, Col. Thomas) and Ann Eliza (Fuller) Stevens. 
Augustus held town offices for a great many years and was super- 
intendent of streets when the town was divided. Other children 
by his first wife are Willis who lives in the South, and Anna, who 
married Charles H. Palmer. His second wife and widow was Mary 
Evans and is the mother of Gertrude, Arthur and Orrin Stevens. 
They live on Washington Street, Wellesley. Francis H. Stevens mar- 
ried Frances I. Alden and their daughter Susie Mae is the wife of 
Malcolm G. Wight. 

Abel Stevens and his sisters Caroline (widow of Chester H. 
Felch) and Susan live on the homestead on Worcester Street, in- 
herited from their father Franklin (Captain Abel, Ephraim, 
Ephraim, Cyprian, Cyprian, Thomas, Col. Thomas). 

Frankline H. Stevens, nephew of Abel and son of the late 
Herbert J., married Lydia Day of Boston. They have two children 
and live in Wellesley Hills. Two sisters are married and live out 
of town. 

George Dexter WARE, born in Needham, January 7, 1833, died 
November 7, 1916, was the son of Mary Colburn (Smith — George, 
Aaron, Jonathan, John, Christopher) and Dexter Ware (Daniel, 
Joshua, Nathaniel, Robert). Dexter was born in Needham, October 
27, 1797, and died October 20, 1851. He was killed by the cars in 
West Needham. He was one of the founders of the Grantville 
church. His father Daniel was born May 19, 1755, and died October 
20, 1819. He served as orderly sergeant in the Revolutionary army 
for two terms of three months each. He married, September 16, 
1784, Abigail Newell, daughter of Ebenezer (Josiah, Isaac, Abraham) 
and Elizabeth (Allen) Newell, born in Dover, November 24, 1764, 
died April 20, 1849. His father Josiah was born in Wrentham, 
March 21, 1707, and died in Needham, July 3, 1798, having moved 
there soon after he was twenty-one. He married four times, but 
this line is traced back to his marriage with Dorothy, daughter of 
Andrew (Andrew, Andrew) and Abigail (Fisher) Dewing, born May 
31, 1721, and died January 26, 1756. His father, Nathaniel Ware, 
was the second son of the "immigrant" and was born in Dedham, 
October 12, 1670. He married, in Wrentham, October 12, 1696, Mary 
"Wheelak." Robert came to Massachusetts before the autumn of 

76 



SOCIAL LIFE AT WELLESLEY 

1642, as he is found in the Dedham records November 25, 1642. 
The "Great" or Dedham Island probably became his house lot. 
Among other grants of land made to him in this vicinity were on 
Rosemary Meadow Brook, on the Great Plain, and near Maugus Hill, 
which latter he left to his son Ephraim. His first wife and the 
mother of his children was Margaret Hunting, daughter of John 
Hunting, first ruling elder of the Dedham church, and of his wife, 
Esther Seaborne, whom he married March 24, 1645. 

Ware descendants living in Wellesley are Caroline Ware 
^atchelder) daughter of Rebecca Ann (Ware, Dexter, Daniel, 
Josiah, Nathaniel, Robert) and Henry Batchelder (John, John, Ben- 
jamin, Thomas, Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Stephen) and widow of C. C. 
Henry; and Ellen Ware Fiske, daughter of Ellen Maria (Ware — 
Dexter, Daniel, Josiah, Nathaniel, Robert) and Joseph E. Fiske. 

Mrs. George White (Frances Mary Edwena NOYES) is the widow 
of Judge White of the Probate Court at Dedham, who died in 1899, 
and is the daughter of Clarissa (Slack — Benjamin, John, Benjamin, 
William) and Edward (Thomas, Thomas, Daniel, Joseph) Noyes. 
Edward Noyes' father was Thomas the first minister of the West 
precinct, and his mother was Rebecca the daughter of Dr. William 
and Esther (Peabody) Deming. On her mother's side Mrs. White's 
grandmother was Sarah Kingsbury of Needham. 

Mrs. White's children are Mary Hawthorne, wife of Clarence A. 
Bunker, George Rantoul who married Irma M. Clapp and Edward 
Noyes who married Ruth Kellogg. Mrs. Bunker's children are Ray- 
mond, Lawrence and Miriam. Edward's son is Sidney. 



SOCIAL LIFE AT WELLESLEY 

(A Paper read at the Wellesley Club, Dec. 16, 1899.) 

The subject assigned to me for this evening naturally includes 
nbnut all there is of interest in the history and present conditions 
in the town, as it is impossible to discuss the social and political 
condition of the community without including religious, educational 
and material conditions likewise. This evidently is not intended 
for me to do and I must be content to call attention in a brief man- 
ner to a few incidental items of the social and political conditions 
in the town in the past and present. 

The town was till quite lately a part of Needham, and originally 
of Dedham, whose first settlers were English, coming to Dedham 
after a brief stay in Watertown. They, like many settlers in New 
England towns, were no doubt impatient of control by others, and 
desired their own form of government. 

The early economic details in the settlement of the territory, 
comprising our town, would afford a text for George, or Bellamy, or 
Adams Smith, or the German or French economists, but I will not 
take farther time than to say that lands were divided by the first 
settlers of Dedham from whom all the old families of our town arc 

77 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

descended, first, so that each should have a house lot of twelve acres 
(the house uot necessarily upon it), second, certain amount of pas- 
ture rights (not ownership), and third, certain interest in arable 
land and later on in woodland. These interests were apportioned 
equally as regards the house lot, the more cows a man owned the 
more pasture he had, the more servants he employed the more acres 
he had to till. The abler man he was (the general capacity was 
taken into account in the division) the more fortunate in feudal 
ownership. 

In passing I think I may refer to the division of woodland as 
of local interest. In 1685 the land lying between the Weston line 
and the Sherburne Road, so called (i. e. the old Indian trail from 
Nonantum to Natick, now Walnut, Washingon, Linden, Wash- 
ington again with some variations in Wellesley village), was 
divided by parallel lines into strips of one hundred acres each, 
and assigned to the Proprietors of Dedham, and called the "Hun- 
dreds Divident." This abbreviated to "The Hundreds" is the origin 
of the now popular name of a most attractive residential part of 
the town. 

With these privileges of ownership and occupation came also 
duties each freeman owed to the community. He was obliged to 
live within the radius of a certain center, not over half a mile away, 
for his own and the general protection. He was obliged to clean a 
certain amount of land each year so that there might be less pro- 
tection afforded to noxious animals, and more arable land for cul- 
tivation and pasture; to clear the streams and rivers of brush, so 
that there might be less overflow; to assist in building roads and 
bridges, and to be prepared for military duties. Many matters of 
public concern, which are now done by delegated authority, and 
paid for out of the public funds raised by taxation, were, in our 
early history, and indeed within the memory of many now living, 
done by the individual or by an especially assigned tax. The road 
tax was a general thing worked out by the inhabitants even within 
my memory, and even our old ministers appeared in working clothes 
doing a good and effective day's work. An unwritten law required 
cooperation in all work of importance of all the neighborhood, as 
for instance in a "raising" everybody turned out, and the house, 
barn or church, with their heavy timbers, went up in a day, and the 
jollification of the working together, the provisions, the liquors, per- 
haps paid for the time given. If a bridge was built and heavy 
stones were hauled the ox teams turned out by the score, and there 
was great rivalry to see who could make the best display. The fact, 
too, that all were actively enrolled in the militia and had training 
days and muster, brought people into close contact and acquaintance. 
The semi-business gatherings, with the Sunday meetings which all 
attended, when in the intermission a great deal of visiting was done, 
a great deal of news exchanged, a great deal of sympathy shown, 
afforded a relief to what otherwise would have been unendurable 
hardship and unrelenting labor. 

The curious feature in our early history was the aversion to 



SOCIAL LIFE AT WELLESLEY 

accession from without, and quite early steps were taken to discour- 
age immigration, and until comparatively recent years the popula- 
tion was confined in the main to the descendants of the early set- 
tlers. 

There was no douht at all that the settlers were poor as com- 
pared with the other communities, many things showing this — one 
heing the absence today of fine old houses of the colonial period in 
the town, no large trees in clusters to show where once some per- 
sons of taste, wealth and authority, lived one hundred years ago, 
as well as the known fact that the farmers who comprised nearly 
the whole community, did not cultivate large tracts of ground, and 
depended chiefly upon their sale of wood, bark, hoop-poles and fag- 
gots to supply themselves with the necessities they could not raise. 
But they were public spirited, patriotic and free men; shown by 
their enlistment under the King in the French and Indian wars 
and prompt service at the outbreak of the Revolution when a com- 
pany from Wellesley (as well as another from Needham) appeared 
in time to lose men by death and wounds at Menontomy, (Arling- 
ton), and by their faithful continuance during the whole war. 

About 1700 a mill was built at the Lower Falls, another mill 
followed but the chief business of the town was farming and work- 
ing in the woods. As Boston developed the farmers more and more 
sent their produce to the capital and changed gradually their 
methods of production to suit the demands of their customers. 

The first great economic change in the town was caused by the 
building of the Boston and Worcester railroad, making closer con- 
nection with Boston and the West possible, and what had more 
direct effect upon the community, introducing new laborers and a 
different class of men. It is said that for a hundred years at least 
there was only one Irishman within the limits of the township of 
Dedham. But now many came over, assisted in the building of 
the road, settled here and remain to this day in their descendants, 
some of whom are members with us, and all I believe have done 
their share in developing the town. 

Later on in 1848, at the building of the Cochituate Water Works, 
a fresh tide from the same source came and settled with us and 
they with their descendants have for many years done a large 
share of the hard manual labor in the towa. 

In 1763 the Welles family, of titled if not royal descent, came 
to town and made large purchases of land and since that time 
this family has had large influence in shaping the material affairs 
of the community. Other families have been still longer identified 
with the town, — the Kingsburys, for instance, one of whom, a 
colonel in the militia, was a delegate to the provincial congress; 
the Wares, of whom Joseph kept a journal, relied upon as an 
authority, of the expedition to Quebec; the Dewings, one of whom 
was probably the first white man to build a house for his own 
occupancy within the limits of the town; the Fullers, early settlers, 
with good records of public service and private worth from the 
beginning to this day. The Slacks, with their connections with the 

79 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

Noyes family with their descendants and alliances, maintain their 
prestige of solid and helpful influence; as well as many others, 
the Stevens, the Flaggs, all of these seem to retain as an inherited 
and preserved legacy the right to be respected and followed. I 
ought also to refer to Dr. W. G. Morton, a former resident of this 
town, who is entitled to the credit of the adoption of ether in 
surgical operations. 

A marked social feature of the town for many years was 
caused by the reputation given to the western part of the town 
by specialists as a health resort for people with tendencies to weak- 
ness of the lungs. Hundreds of people have made their residence 
here because the alternative seemed to be Heaven, and while 
we felt complimented by their choice their presence in the past 
sometimes had a very depressing effect on the neighborhood, especi- 
ally as funerals were somewhat too frequent. But since Dr. Bow- 
ditch has purchased land in Sharon and has discovered that Wel- 
lesley has become damp and unsuitable for consumptives our bill 
of mortality has visibly decreased. Another curiosity of our habi- 
tat, at one time, was the presence of an abnormal number of sea 
captains, at another of ministers without charge. One character 
who was with us whom I can just remember must not be omitted, 
as his reputation, thanks to Mrs. Stowe, is world wide, — Sam 
Lawton — (Lawson). 

The persons who have had the most influence in determining 
the future of the town are Mr. and Mrs. Durant in the establish- 
ment and the endowment of Wellesley College, which has already 
given the name of Wellesley a world wide reputation and yet has 
hardly begun to show its influence in the town. As the institution 
grows older and wider in its scope Professors will locate with their 
families outside the enclosure; people desirous to avail themselves 
of the benefits of the college will settle here; parents will come 
to educate their children and its general reputation will draw people 
in sympathy with it and we shall have the presence of a distinctly 
literary class of people. 

It is quite within my memory that the town has become 
attractive to men whose business takes them to Boston every day. 
For many years previous to 1870 or even later, families would 
come here, stay a short time, two or three years perhaps, and would 
go away to be followed by others of the same kind, and the old 
settlers gradually took this for granted. But of late there has not 
been nearly as much change in the personnel of the population, 
a great advantage socially. The class of people coming are more 
substantial, financially, and of course the place with the additions 
of trains, introductions of water, and many social privileges is be- 
coming more and more attractive. We owe our improvement to 
the general improvement of the country, the increase of population, 
the increase of wealth, and the improvement in our own finances 
and accessions from without. 

The 59's and 60's brought the first signs of the more modern 
elements into our social life; some bright, fresh young men took 

80 



SOCIAL LIFE AT WELLESLEY 

an interest in affairs, the schools received more attention, and there 
was a general shaking up. Not that everything that was done was 
the wisest, but the activity was better than stagnation and lagging. 
The old Lyceum at Grantville and Unionville of those days bring 
to mind the names Patten Dana, Ware, Kingsbury, Lake, Atwood, 
Daniel, Leslie. It was largely attended and excited as much interest 
as anything of the kind ever did in the town. There were picnics 
and fishing excursions and a variety of celebrations in which all 
parts of the town joined. Social parties were frequent, but were 
not public and were confined to the younger people. There were 
Young Men's Christian Associations in the villages, and, during 
my remembrance, always church societies and church socials. There 
has been no time in the last fifty years that there has not been a 
public library in some quarter of the town, the first one I remember 
being at the North School house, a very good one too, though 
small. 

The politics of the town of Wellesley historically considered are 
of little interest as distinct from that of national and state politics. 
The politicians of the town have not as a rule attained anything 
more than a local reputation. We have now and then, in the past 
had residents who have had a national or state reputation, but 
they have obtained their notoriety elsewhere than among us Of 
course it would be interesting to trace the history of the rise prog- 
ress and fall of the great parties as illustrated in the limits of 
our town, but time and space forbid. I remember the earlv 
formation of the Free Soil and later the coalition of the Free 
Soil and Democrats resulting in the election of Henry Robinson a 
Free Soiler, to the Legislature which elected Charles Sumner to the 
United States Senate. He was a leader in his party and my father 
was in the Democratic party and I remember very well at a town 
meeting the succeeding year for the election of representatives after 
several ineffectual ballots the Democrats and Free Soilers being 
divided, my father said, with a great deal of energv, "we will send 
Robinson again," and he was elected over William Flagg the Whig 
candidate, my father being sent the next year to the Constitutional 
Convention. 

The Know Nothing flurry was an incident in our politics, effec- 
tive, ridiculous, but charged with great consequences. The' oaths 
were administered in the loft of the old bowling alley that stood 
where the new line of the Boston and Albany is, just behind Mr. 
Calvin Smith's,i and many old Democrats and Whigs took their 
vows and followed the dicta of order and had their part in the 
revolution which brought into existence and power the Republican 
Party. This party during the war practically included the whole 
voting population, as at one election only two Democratic votes 
were cast in the town of Needham. There was an excitement when 
the attacks were made on McLellan in 1862 which culminated in 
Maugus Hall (later the Unitarian Church) and more nearly ending 
in a free fight than any meeting that was ever held here. 

Probably, however, the liveliest purely political meeting ever 

81 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

held in the town was a caucus in the old Town Hall for the selec- 
tion of delegates to the Representative Convention to determine 
who should stand as the Republican candidate for 1881, the year 
division was petitioned from Needham. Every democrat in town 
was a republican that year for the Caucus, and every Wellesley 
republican was that same year, at the polls, a democrat, showing 
niie of the most marked political transformations ever known. 
Later politics in the town are too well known to you and too 
gently indeterminate to develop much interest. 

The present social advantages of our town are found in the 
correct morals, the courteous behavior, the refinement and culture 
of the inhabitants, the nearness to Boston, with all its advantages, 
the possessions of a fair share of wealth allowing many proper 
luxuries, and the activity and energy which enable our citizens 
to improve the many opportunities offered for social pleasures, 
and the ambition of our young people who give promise that 
there shall be no retrogade movement in their day and genera- 
tion. 

The Religious societies do not neglect their flocks socially, as 
the many fairs, entertainments and dances testify. The Guilds 
and Christian Endeavor Societies, exceedingly energetic, provide 
recreation as well as religion. The Lawn Tennis and Ball Clubs 
are deservedly popular and afford very delightful and useful occu- 
pation as well as attracting friends from outside. Dramatic and 
Musical Clubs are well sustained. The Chatauquan and Woman's 
Suffrage Clubs, the Beading and Literary Clubs, general and special, 
the Card Clubs, the Farmers' and Mechanics' Organizations, afford 
enough opportunities to all classes, young or old, of whatever 
tastes, for entertainment and amusement of every variety. With 
all these the happy homes in a respectable community and agree- 
able neighbors offer the summit of comfort. To any able to re- 
ceive it, one suggestion of a lack I will make. The acquaintance 
between Wellesley and the Hills is not as intimate, or as close, 
as it should, or as it might be. Several organizations include 
both villages and several families are intimately associated, but 
it belongs to this club, perhaps, to see that a closer social union 
is made possible and sometime perhaps the villages may be con- 
nected by an electric railway or some such thing. 
1 The house next to the Worcester Street bridge. 

WELLESLEY 1881-1906 

(Read at the Wellesley Club, April, 1906.) 
Twenty-five years in the lifetime of a State or Municipality is 
a very short time and yet great changes take place in a community 
in even that short space. When Wellesley was incorporated in April, 
1881, it had a population of very nearly 2,600. By the census of 
1905, it had 4,600, showing a larger percentage of increase than 
any other town of the State, excepting two: Easthampton and Nor- 
wood. The increase in its population was exceeded by only five 
towns in the State of less than 12,000 inhabitants. 

82 



WELLESLEY, 1881-1906 

The valuation of the town, May 1, 1881, was $3,024,698. The 
valuation of the town, May 1, 1906, was $13,941,165. The number of 
polls, May 1, 1881, was 577. The number of polls, May 1, 1906, was 
1,290. 

The number of pupils in the schools of the town shown by the 
first report was 331. By the report of 1906 (December), 920. Pupils 
in High School, 1881, 34; 1906, 129. Cost of Schools: First appro- 
priation, $7,943.64; in 1906, $38,790.69. Number of teachers in the 
schools: 1881, 12; 1906, 43. Since 1881 the Hunnewell school-house 
has been replaced by a new building. One High School has been 
built and found inadequate and another is near completion. The 
Fiske School has been built, enlarged and fully occupied and the 
North School enlarged. It has been decided that a Union Grammar 
School shall be established as soon as the new High School building 
shall be occupied. 

The college has more than doubled in the twenty-five years that 
have elapsed and of the many buildings only College Hall was in 
existence twenty-five years ago. 

Dana Hall School, established in the fall of 1881 — on the dis- 
continuance of the preparatory department of the College, the 
Academy of the Assumption, Rock Ridge Hall and Mr. Benner's 
School for Boys all recent establishments, give the town the right to 
be called an educational center. 

There has been a very steady growth of the town in buildings 
of a more or less public character, as witness the various dormi- 
tories and other buildings in the College grounds and vicinity, the 
Town Hall — the generous gift of Mr. Hunnewell — school buildings 
erected, the different business blocks at Wellesley and the Hills, 
also St. Andrew's church in Wellesley, and the Unitarian and Con- 
gregational church buildings in the Hills. Different residential sec- 
tions have developed very attractively, as along Dover and Grove 
Streets in Wellesley, and Abbott Road, Belvedere, and Cliff Road, 
Wellesley Hills, and clusters of humbler homes on no less attractive 
sites, as on River Ridge, Newton Lower Falls and Garfield Farm, 
near the Boston and Worcester car station. 

Very soon after the incorporation of the town steps were taken 
for the introducing of water, and the works were in operation in 
1885, the cost of which up to date is about $341,000. 

A Telephone Exchange was established in Wellesley Hills in 
1894 and now has 418 subscribers. 

The character of the population, while not changed, has never- 
theless shown large growth in the wealth of the citizens, while the 
number of college-bred men and women has increased by a much 
larger percentage than the population. 

I have often thought I should like to show my father around 
the town, if he could return, and see his wonderment at the changes. 
In the house he would have running water, the electric light, the 
telephone to talk with friends next door or a hundred miles away. 
He steps out on the street and may take a car to Boston or Worcester! 

83 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

Needham or Dedham, with his choice of routes. He sees a non- 
descript carriage without visible propelling force, and is as eager 
as his children to get out of the way. He goes about the street and 
sees old pastures covered with fine lawns and buildings — a Town 
Hall, elegant of construction, a Library well-stored with books, 
school-houses and play-grounds and parks galore. He gets his check 
cashed on the bank if his credit is good. If he stays long enough 
to get a letter from the other side, it is brought to him, whether he 
is next door or at the extreme end of the town. Perhaps he would 
conclude not to go back. 

Parks have sprung into existence, the one by Fuller's Brook for 
sanitary reasons, the Play-Ground, the gift of the Hunnewells, the 
extension of the Metropolitan Park system through the town, and 
the various smaller parks dotting the town here and there. 

In 1899-1900, by order of the County Commissioners, Washing- 
ton Street was widened in many places and by vote of the town was 
macadamized and drained along its whole length. Worcester Street 
also was later widened and rebuilt. The building of good roads by 
the Abbot Real Estate Company and by Mr. Clapp and others have 
been of great benefit to the town in developing land without public- 
cost. 

The town has shared with the rest of the world in improve- 
ments in transportation of goods and persons and facility of com- 
munication. In 1881 the only public conveyances to Boston, the 
workshop of most of our men, was over the Boston and Albany Bail- 
road, but in 1896 the Natick and Cochituate began running, and in 
1903, the Boston and Worcester, giving the inhabitants of Wellesley 
innumerable daily opportunities of reaching the city. 

Of very important influence in social affairs have been the sev- 
eral clubs which have been organized within the time mentioned: 
notably, the Wellesley Hills Woman's Club, organized in 1894 with 
Mrs. Abby S. Fiske for first president, and now having about 200 
members. Tbe Wellesley Club was organized in 1889, with Col. 
Albert Clarke for first president and now has 100 members and a 
large waiting list. This club has many of the features of the Board 
of Trade in other municipalities, and has done much in ways of 
investigating propositions for improvements in town affairs, notably 
in railway fares, parks and the like. The Maugus Club organized in 
1892 has a commodious Club House and 100 members. 



ACCOUNT OF THE DIVISION OF THE TOWN 

(Read at the Wellesley Club, Oct 15, 1906.) 

The Town of Needham was incorporated in 1711, and later was 
divided into the East and West Parishes. These never harmonized, 
and several attempts were made by the West Parish for separate 
incorporation, before the final successful one, notably in 1820. Also 
in 1852 and 1859, efforts were made for division. 

84 



DIVISION OF TOWN 

I remember my father told me that one of the attempts made 
in the 50's failed because old gray-headed Laurence Kingsbury ap- 
peared before the Committee of the Legislature, and excused his 
appearance as the people of the East Side were too poor to employ 
Council. I suppose the underlying motive was selfish on the part 
of the West, while the bonds of union were very slender. Of course, 
there was, at those times, more or less expression of discontent, 
especially when some measure, popular in the East, was thought 
unwise in the West, or some want expressed by the West was voted 
down by the East. And there was only required an initiative to 
enlist the interest and work of all the citizens of the West Side. 

One day, in the first part of August, 1880 I met Mr. Joseph H. 
Dewing on the street, and he said, "When are you going to start 
the division movement?" And I said, "Let's call a meeting of a 
dozen people at my house next week and see if we get any en- 
couragement to try it." The meeting was called, and the people 
invited responded. I cannot recall all the names, but there were 
present Messrs. F. H. Dewing, G. K. Daniell, Solomon Flagg, Albert 
Jennings, C. B. Dana, John Curtis, F. H. Stevens, E. O. Bullock, 
A. R. Clapp, I think, and a half a dozen others. There was no 
especial formality, but it was decided to call a general meeting. 
A call was issued, and very generally responded to on August 26, 
1880. 

The following is a copy of the Secretary's report of this and 
the following meeting:— 

On Thursdav evening, August 26, 1880, Meeting in Shaw Hall, 
Grantville, of Citizens in favor of the division of the Town. Over 
200 present estimated. Meeting called to order by Joseph E. Fiske, 
and organized by choosing George K. Daniell as Chairman, and F. 
H. Stevens, Secretary. 

After remarks on the object of the meeting by John W. bhaw 
and others, on motion of J. E. Fiske, it was unanimously voted 
that "it is the sense of this meeting that measures should be taken 
looking toward the division of the Town, and that the matter be 
followed up until accomplished." On motion of John W. Shaw, a 
committee of five was appointed by the Chair, to nominate a com- 
mittee of ten from the West part of the Town, to fix upon a line for 
the division, and also to invite the other part of the Town to ap- 
point a committee of conference, and if possible, get a proposition 
from them which would be mutually satisfactory. 

The Chair appointed as a nominating committee, Solomon 
Flagg, Lewis Wight, Joseph E. Fiske, Albert Jennings, and John 
Curtis. 

Mr. Fiske moved to appoint a committee of five to nominate 
a committee of twenty-five to take charge of the whole matter re- 
lating to the division of the Town, and it was debated while the 
nominating committee were out, and the motion of Mr. Pratt to lay 
on the table was defeated, and the nominating committee reported 
the names of the following gentlemen as a committee of ten: John 
W. Shaw, L. Allen Kingsbury, George Spring, Lewis Wight, Abel F. 
Stevens, Frank H. Stevens, John Curtis, Frank L. Fuller, C. B. Dana, 

85 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

Freeman Phillips, and they were chosen by the committee. Mr. 
Spring declined to serve, and George White was chosen in his place, 
and F. H. Stevens also declined, and Augustus Fuller substituted. 

The same nominating committee were authorized to nominate a 
committee of twenty-five under Mr. Fiske's motion, and A. R. Clapp 
was added to the committee, and on motion of Mr. Whipple, the 
committee were directed to report to an adjourned meeting. 

The meeting then adjourn d for one week, same time and place. 

F. H. Stevens, Secretary. 

"September 2, 1880, adjourned meeting of citizens in favor of 
division of the Town in Shaw Hall, Grantville. 

On Thursday evening, September 2nd, at 7.30 o'clock, meeting 
called to order by the Chair, and the records of the last meeting 
read by the Secretary. The report of the Committee of Conference 
was submitted to the Chairman, John W. Shaw, and accepted. The 
nominating committee reported through J. E. Fiske, the list of names 
to serve as a committee of twenty-five. The report was accepted, 
and adopted by the meeting. Mr. Fiske moved that the committee 
have the power to fill vacancies, and Mr. Sanborn moved to have 
power to add any names they may think proper, and the motion 
as amended, was passed. 

The meeting then adjourned, subject to the call of the com- 
mittee. 

F. H. Stevens, Secretary." 

Report of the Committee of Conference: — 

"The Committee appointed to confer with the East part of the 
Town in the matter of division of Needham, beg leave to report 
as follows: — 

First, we called upon several of the leading men of that part. 
Among them was Emery Grover, Esq., who very kindly consented 
to make known our desire to some of his neighbors, and subse- 
quently he proposed to meet us at Odd Fellows Hall last Tuesday 
evening. On going there, seven of our committee being present, 
we met quite a large number of gentlemen from that side, all of 
whom proved more or less opposed to the division of the Town on 
any terms. After discussing the matter at some length, all seemingly 
in a friendly way, their chairman intimated that further negotia- 
tion would, in his judgment result in a waste of time, as they on 
that side, were decidedly opposed to division. 
All of which is respectfully submitted. 

John W. Shaw, Chairman." 

There was no general meeting afterwards, all the business hav- 
ing been given into the hands of the committee of twenty-five, and 
this was practically transferred to the Legislative Committee of 
five, consisting of Messrs. Fiske, Putney, A. H. Buck, to which was 
added Benjamin H. Sanborn and John W. Shaw. A committee on 
finance was appointed, and a treasurer. 

86 



DIVISION OF TOWN 

The Legislative Committee authorized Mr. Fiske to make a 
statement of the case, to be submitted to the members of the Legis- 
lature, which is hereby given as for the most part a comprehensive 
statement: — 

"A petition will be presented to the Legislature of 1881, asking 
that a part of the Town of Needham be set off and incorporated 
as a new town by the name Wellesley. 

The town of Needham is situated in Norfolk County, was in- 
corporated in 1711, and comprises about 15,000 acres of land, of 
which 13,000 are taxed. The present population is 5,261, and the 
valuation as reported by the assessors is $4,366,267. The town, 
under the old system, was divided into two parishes, the East and 
West, and the petitioners request that the West Parish shall have 
a separate town government. 

The distinction between the two parishes has been recognized 
and taxes separately assessed until within a few years, and there 
has never been a harmonious union between the two parts of the 
town; but of late years especially the association has grown to be 
less and less tolerable. 

We wish to call attention to some facts showing why a division 
is eminently wise and desirable. The inhabitants on the west side 
are unanimous in asking for incorporation. They have asked for 
it in the past, applying as long ago as 1820 to the Legislature, and 
have renewed their efforts from time to time for independence, and 
now without doubt will press until it is acquired. If the town 
should be divided upon the line referred to, the territory taken 
would comprise about three-sevenths of the area, and the population 
would be about equally divided. Along the division line, lying upon 
either side is a belt of territory about a mile and a quarter in 
width, with very few dwellings upon it, which separates the two 
parts as clearly as a mountain range or broad river. Within, or 
bordering upon this belt, are situated three large cemeteries, for 
a long distance the Sudbury-river conduit, and large expanse of 
swamp and forest. Within, too, is located the "Poor-House" and 
"Town-Hall," all in one, where the paupers dwell and the voters 
transact the public business. 

West of this uninhabited tract lie the villages of Lower Falls, 
Grantville, and Wellesley; easterly, Upper Falls, Highland- 
ville, Needham and Charles River Village. 

Through the first-named villages runs the Boston and Albany 
Railroad, with five stations within the limits of the town; through 
the latter the Woonsocket Division of the New York and New Eng- 
land Railroad, with four stations. 

Upon the one side are two, upon the other three, Post Offices. 

Upon the east side there is a Congregational Church, a Unita- 
rian, a Methodist, Baptist, and just across the river a Catholic 
Church. 

Upon the west two Congregational, a Unitarian, a Catholic, and 
just over the river a Methodist Church. 

There are two High Schools, one on each side. 

87 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

There are the usual societies for protection, cultivation, and 
amusement; but each side has distinct organizations. There are 
Public Libraries; but each village supports its own. It will be ap- 
parent at a glance that there is no natural or artificial connection 
between the two parts of the town. 

The children never meet in the schools. 

It is not feasible to unite the two High schools as half the 
scholars would be obliged to ride six to eight miles a day in car- 
riages, at the best, in such case. 

Not a family on the east attends church on the west; nor one 
on the west, the east. 

No brother Mason, or Odd Fellow, or Good Templar, or Knight 
of Honor, crosses the line to greet his brother save as an infrequent 
visitor. 

No one crosses the line for his mail, or groceries, or his litera- 
ture, or his amusement, and the only place of meeting is in the 
woods, in the Poor-House, a mile or more from the nearest village, 
where men succeed in misunderstanding each other, and, through 
the ignorance of the needs of each section, wasting the money of 
the town. 

The condition of Needham, if YVellesley should be incorporated, 
need not call for sympathy. The population of Needham, after 
division, will be about 2,600 (2,538); its valuation, about $2,000,000 
(1,750,000 close estimate). 

By examination of the last State census returns, it appears that 
the town, after losing Wellesley, will have a larger population than 
two hundred and eighteen (218) towns out of 326 in the Common- 
wealth and a larger valuation than two hundred and twenty-three 
(223) towns. No hardship can be experienced on account of schools, 
as not a single scholar will be affected by the change, nor will any 
church, society, or social interest receive the slightest shock. 

A possible objection may be urged on account of bridges; but 
a slight deflection in the line, affecting no dwelling, would include 
in Wellesley an additional wooden bridge; so that in Wellesley 
there would be three wooden bridges and one stone, and in Need- 
ham five substantial stone bridges, one iron, and two wooden. 

There would perhaps be an excess of streets and roads in Need- 
ham, as there have been a large number of new and expensive roads 
lately built in that part of the town. 

The result attained by granting the petition will be to create 
two towns in place of one. The one now without cohesion, full 
of misunderstanding and hard feeling, unmanageable in government, 
and extravagant in expenditure, will be replaced by two towns, com- 
pact, filled with people who come into contact with each other every 
day, and who will unite with each other in friendly effort to forward 
the interests of their communities. 

The citizens of Wellesley are anxious to secure a town govern- 
ment, and believe, if they do so, they will in no way injure their 
neighbors of the other side of the town. They believe, if the town 

88 



DIVISION OF TOWN 

is incorporated, there will be a prosperous future in store for 
them. 

The town of Wellesley will be about four miles long by two 
and three quarters broad, will contain about 2,600 inhabitants, will 
have a valuation of about $2,500,000, four school-houses, eleven 
schools, two post-offices, five railroad stations, and withal be a com- 
plete town in all respects with a homogeneous population and gen- 
eral agreement of interest. 

Within the limits of the new town is Wellesley College, now so 
favorably known, and sure to grow year by year in usefulness and 
reputation. 

Respectfully submitted, 

In behalf of the Petitioners." 

The names of the committee of twenty-five are as follows: — 
George K. Daniell, Solomon Flagg, F. H. Stevens, Edwin O. Bullock, 
Benjamin H. Sanborn, Albion R. Clapp, Lewis Wight, Joseph E. 
Fiske, John W. Shaw, John Curtis, Albert Jennings, George White, 
Charles B. Dana, E. Howard Stanwood, Gamaliel Bradford, George 
Spring, F. J. Lake, A. H. Buck, Joseph H. Dewing, H. B. Scudder, L. 
Allen Kingsbury, Thomas Whipple, Daniel Warren, Edmund M. 
Wood, Abel F. Stevens, L. K. Putney. 

Petitions, etc. 

The committee on petitions worked effectively, and as a result 
of their efforts, all citizens signed with the exception as was stated, 
of seventeen, of whom ten were neutral, and only seven opposed 
division. Judge Josiah G. Abbott headed the formal petition, and 
was of great service from first to last with his advice and co-opera- 
tion. The petition reads as follows: — 

"We, the undersigned, voters and tax-payers of the town of 
Needham, respectfully request your honorable bodies to pass an 
act dividing said town of Needham, by setting off the west part 
thereof from the east, near the line of division which formerly 
separated the West Parish from the East, with such deviation from 
said line as will nearly equally divide the territory, as shall appear 
to your honorable bodies wise and expedient; and that you will 
incorporate the west part into a new town under the name of 
Wellesley for the following, among many, reasons: — 

That there is no connection or intercourse between the east 
and west parts of said town, whether of business, or schools, or 
religious worship. That the west part of said town consists of 
the villages of Wellesley, Grantville and the Lower Falls, and 
all lie along the Boston and Albany Railroad. That the east part 
of said town consists of Needham, Highlandville, Charles River Vil- 
lage, and Upper Falls, and all lie along the Woonsocket Division 
of the New York and New England Railroad. That the children 
of the town attend exclusively the schools in their respective sec- 
tions, there being a High School in the east part, and another in 
the west. 

89 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

That the town hall is removed from centres of all the villages 
in the town, and the performance of civic and public duties is 
rendered difficult, expensive and onerous to the great majority of 
voters in the town, and that there is no remedy for these evils so 
long as the town remains undivided." 

Caucus 

In October, the Republican caucus for the selection of dele- 
gates to the convention for the nomination of representative to the 
general court was held, and while of no direct bearing upon the 
result, was of great value in exciting interest and developing antag- 
onism between the two parts of the town ; this being the only meet- 
ing in which both sides were brought together in public. Ostensibly 
this was a political party caucus; but actually, all voters of the 
town, on both sides of the town, Democratic and Republican, were 
present, together with what reinforcements the west could get 
from South Natick and Lower Falls, and the east from Upper Falls 
and Dover. 

No local scrap, unless the McLellan riot in Maugus Hall, was 
livelier than this. I asked Mr. Hugh McLeod to get some fellows 
of his athletic build together and occupy the front seats in case 
the vote was not going right, or the other side became too violent, 
and he had his men in place all right. 

The committee arranged to have Mr. Rradford as presiding offi- 
cer, and E. A. Wood as Secretary, while I was to be floor manager. 
The delegation numbered seventeen, and all we asked for was eight ; 
less than one-half. This the other side refused, but we were finally 
victorious; although as we feared, the other towns of the district 
nominated Mr. Grover a resident of Needham, and opposed to divi- 
sion. Mr. Henry Durant was present, and an excited participant 
in the meeting. There were many incidents of interest, among 
which was the announcement by Mr. Everett Eaton that when a 
vote was about to be taken, the hall way and stairs were filled with 
people who could not get in; when burly Tom Purcell pushed to 
the rear, and announced, "Mr. Chairman, there is not a damn man 
in the stair way!" 

Reverend Mr. Edwards was asked (it was late Saturday even- 
ing) "If we do not leave till after midnight, will you stay?" 

"My dear sir", said he, "I shall wait until a decision is neces- 
sary before I make one." 

Reverend Mr. Cowan of Wellesley, formerly of Tennessee, when 
asked "Does this remind you of home?' said, "Really, my hand 
has been going involuntarily to my hip pocket repeatedly." 

Legislative Hearings 
The Committee of twenty-five appointed a Legislative Commit- 
tee as heretofore given. Hearings began soon after the election in 
this way. The pamphlet prepared by me was submitted to the 
Committee of twenty-five, and 1,500 copies printed. These were dis- 

90 



DIVISION OF TOWN 

tributed to the citizens of the town to be used as a guide in the 
interviews with members of the Legislature. The members of the 
Legislature were assigned to the citizens who were acquainted with 
them, and the citizen was instructed to explain and vouch for the 
statements in the pamphlet, which was unsigned, but not anony- 
mous, every person presenting a voucher for it. Then the list of 
members not familiar to any citizen was taken, and each one con- 
signed to some one who knew some acquaintance who might be in- 
fluential with the member, and thus almost every member was 
directly reached before the meeting of the general court, and we 
knew our case was won, unless the unexpected should happen. 

The method thus adopted was new, but has been used since 
in many cases. 

The next matter was to employ council, and Mr. Samuel A. B. 
Abbott was engaged, and by the advice of Judge Abbott, endorsed 
by the committee, Patrick Collins, since a member of Congress and 
Mayor of Boston, was secured. He was not only a good legislative 
lawyer, but a leading democratic politician; and what seemed to 
make him still more acceptable, he was a resident of South Boston, 
the district represented by Speaker Noyes ;— really a democratic dis- 
trict. 

As chairman of the legislative committee I was supposed to 
know all that was going on in the matter of committees on towns, 
and was informed of all applicants for a position on the committee 
by our council. They were then looked up, and if thought necessary, 
objected to. All I know about it is that no one who was objected to 
went on the list; nor did I know who were going on, and when the 
committee was finally appointed, the names were largely unfamiliar 
to me. The Committee of the Legislature consisted of Cook of Hamp- 
shire, Snow of the Cape District, Corbin of Worcester, on the part of 
the Senate; Morse of Newton, Jones of Chelsea, Willicut of Boston, 
Stowe of Hudson, Thompson of Medway, Moriarty of Worcester, 
Almy of Salem, Cowley of Lowell, on the part of the House. I was 
taken ill and was not present at any of the hearings. Mr. Putney 
was in charge for the Legislative Committee, and attended very ably 
to the business, as all interested testify. He came to see me, and 
seemed to be very timid about his ability to look after matters, and 
I told him he would do better than I could, and I think he proved 
my assertion true. 

There were several hearings, and many witnesses were called on 
both sides. On the part of the west, Mr. Daniell, Flagg, Clapp, Shaw 
and others. On the part of the east, Mr. Tucker, Grover, Mackin- 
tosh, Whittaker and others. Mr. Whittaker insisted that if the town 
was divided there were no men on the east side competent to run 
the town, which of course was an absured statement, and was repudi- 
ated by both councils. 

A report was finally made by the committee to the House, 
signed by G. W. Morse, but dissented from by Senator Cook and 
Bepresentative Jones. The bill, except the sixth section, which was 

91 



HISTORY OF TOWN OF WELLESLEY 

amended, was passed and signd by the Governor April 6th, 1881. 
A town meeting was held April 18th, 1881. 

Funds Raised 

The finance eommitt received subscriptions from the citizens, 
the list being headed by H. H. Hunnewell for $900, Mr. Abbott and 
Mr. Durant with $250 each, and several others with $200. As I un- 
derstand it, but 80 per cent, of the subscriptions were called for, 
and 6 per cent, returned to the subscribers, the total subscriptions 
amounting to something over $4,000, and the expenditures about 
$;i,300; a fairly good showing, as the council fees were more than 
one-half the bill. Edwin O. Bullock was treasurer, succeeded by 
John Curtis, who closed the account. 



92 



